


By My Side (Season One)

by NotYoshihide



Series: By Our Side [1]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst and Romance, Bad Parent Gothel (Disney), Belligerent Sexual Tension, Between Episodes, Bi-Curiosity, Canon Compliant, Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider Have a Lot in Common, Cassgene bicker flirtatiously, Cassunzel struggle with their feelings, Episodic Chapters, F/F, F/M, Feelings Realization, Foreshadowing, Friends to Lovers, I'm pretty sure Eugene has a 'thing' for hair, Multi, New Dream is true love, OT3, Rapunzel Has a Type, Romance, Season/Series 01, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 62,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24635593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotYoshihide/pseuds/NotYoshihide
Summary: A series of canon compliant one or two shots that takes place between episodes of season one. Let's dig into the romantic developments between our favorite One True Trio.What attraction was there between a Lady-in-Waiting sick of waiting in the wings, a Rogue rediscovering everything he ever thought he knew, and a Princess who's got everything except maybe not everything? Here are those stories of their romance that didn't make it on screen.Update: Slight revisions being made to chapters to better incorporate details from The Lost Lagoon.
Relationships: Cassandra/Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider (Disney), Cassandra/Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: By Our Side [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870165
Comments: 143
Kudos: 156





	1. Cake, Paint, and a new Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting a New Life. The Job of Cake. A Missing Itinerary. Group Hugs Fix Everything. Fellow Orphans, and the Sympathy Of. The Horse Race Before Happily Ever After. A Sunday Date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The day before "Before Ever After"

Flynn Rider was starting a new life.

For starters, he was no longer Flynn Rider. Changing his name and hiding his identity wasn't new to him, but he had always returned to the moniker Flynn Rider: world renowned rogue, master thief, and uncatchable joker with no place to call his own. 

But this identity wasn't one that was meant to disappear. This identity wasn't even fake. This was his name, the name he had since he was a snot nosed orphan. 

Eugene Fitzherbert.

Ok, it wasn't a glamorous name. It was pretty lame, actually. 

Fitzherbert. Yeesh.

But it was _his_. And more importantly it was _hers_ now, too. Not the Fitzherbert part, hopefully that would come later. Sometime soon later, but later. At least until after her coronation.

Princess Rapunzel. Long lost heir to the Corona Royal Throne, kidnapped as a child by an evil witch. An evil witch that had killed him, by the way. Stabbed dead. Shanked in the back. Knife to the gut. Sent on his way to the last hideout in the sky.

But he got better.

Whole lot of stuff happened, but somewhere along the way Rapunzel killed the evil witch, had an extremely over dramatic haircut, and brought him back to life. He wasn't quite sure how other than 'magic', which was something he had never really liked. Stuff could happen and the only explanation for it you got was 'magic'. It was annoying.

But since then he was devoted, heart and soul, to the most beautiful, caring, loving girl in the whole wide world. He would go to the ends of the world for her, throw out the maps and follow her anywhere. She was a dream he had always wanted to share. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

The fact she was royalty and he'd never have to worry about money, food, or shelter ever again also really helped. He even preferred the short, brunette hair she now had, although the sunshine-like blondeness had really suited her. Heck, he didn't even need to _work_ anymore! Well, he had work. A single important job.

"Say ahh," Eugene said happily as he held a forkful of strawberry cake out to Rapunzel. She took the bite and had a giggle muffled by the food in her mouth.

"Fyugene," she started through the cake before she swallowed, "Eugene! I'm not a baby." She pushed him in that affectionate way couples do when they're flirting that Eugene had only really experienced when pulling a con.

"What, can't a boyfriend feed his girlfriend cake when they're on a picnic date?" He asked with dramatic flair. "You got to let yourself get swept up in the moment when you've got a view like this!" He gestured towards the city of Corona that sprawled out before them from their perch on Rapunzel's balcony.

"Fine then," said Rapunzel as she carved some cake onto her own fork, "in that case it's only fair I get to do it to you." Eugene opened his mouth happy to accept the sugary treat offered to him. He'd take a lap over the roofs of the city later to burn the calories, of course.

Except he wouldn't need to if he never got to eat the cake.

The door to Rapunzel's new room was thrown open and the worst thing about castle life trotted in on soft soled shoes. Eugene nearly fell off the balcony railing at the surprise of it all.

"You're still here?" This was Cassandra; stickler for the rules, total buzz kill, always eye-rolling, pain in Eugene's neck. She was also the official Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess of Corona, which meant she was almost always at Rapunzel's side.

"I already told you, Cass, he's not going anywhere. Eugene gets to stay in the castle with me and that's final." That Rapunzel stood up for him bolstered Eugene's confidence and pride.

"Yeah! Final!" Ok, not the wittiest of responses, but sometimes simple is best.

"As much as I'd like to see him go, I wasn't talking about him. You've got a schedule to keep, I left it out for you last night." Walking over to the table she had left the paper on, Cassandra's face slowly melted into a frown. "There's so much paint… this wasn't here last night, where did all this come from?"

"Twas a gift from yours truly" Eugene said, waving a cake tipped fork like a magic wand. He and Rapunzel walked into the room from the balcony and Eugene deposited himself into a comfy chair with a womph. He put his feet up on a chest and popped the cake piece into his mouth.

"Eugene brought them as a gift this morning! Along with this wonderful cake. It's _so_ good. You have to try some!" Rapunzel rushed to her handmaiden's side holding the plate in front of her, fork held up to feed her like she was about to do for Eugene moments ago.

Cassandra was too preoccupied lifting jars of paint and bundles of brushes looking for the schedule she'd left to notice the incoming cake. "Princess we don't have timmff!"

"It's delicious, right?" Rapunzel said with glee. Eugene chuckled from his chair at the chipmunk cheeks and wide eyed surprise on Cassandra's face. "We were _just_ talking about strawberry desserts the other day."

Without getting up from his chair Eugene spun his fork in a circle parallel to him and bowed his head. "What can I say, I aim to please. If my lady says she needs cake and paint, I get her cake and paint." 

He was proud to have made Rapunzel so giddy. It felt _good_ being with a girl as peppy as her, and it felt even better being her a reason for being so peppy.

Cassandra finally swallowed her surprise mouthful of sweet pastry and strawberry filling while holding up two jars of paint. "Rapunzel, if you wanted paint you could have asked any member of the castle staff and we'll happily get it for you. Like your personal Lady-in-Waiting, for example?" Her flippant tone went well with the over exaggerated shrug she was making. "You don't need to ask a lazy buffoon to get it for you. He probably stole it, anyways."

Rapunzel was about to hand Eugene her plate when he rose from his seat with indignation, handing his plate to her instead. "Hey! I'll have you know I bought those paints fair and square!" He conveniently left out the part where he had bought it with what was technically Rapunzel's money. "And besides, even if I did steal'em, which I didn't, it would have taken _some_ effort to do. That means it go fatso, you can't call me lazy."

"The phrase is 'ipso facto' you moron." Cassandra replied, slamming the most recent jars of paint she had picked up back onto the table. She also approached him with the same indignation and they locked eyes inches apart from each other. 

As he stared into those hazel eyes Eugene’s head ran through a dozen scenarios and cons he could use to diffuse this situation by reflex. 

But he didn’t have to do any of them. There was no job anymore. This was going to be the start of his new life, and nothing was going to stand in his way.

“Guys, guys! C’mon, don’t fight like this,” Rapunzel interjected, placing the plates down on an empty part of the table of paint. “Cassandra, Eugene, take deep breaths, c’mon, that’s it. In and out. Iiin… ouuut.” She made her way between them to separate the pair from each other and act as a buffer to their aggression.

“Cass, I’m sorry about not knowing about the schedule, that’s as much my fault as it is Eugene’s.” Cassandra visibly softened at the Princess’s apology and this time it was Eugene’s turn to roll _his_ eyes. But they quickly returned to attention when Rapunzel turned on her heel to face him. “And Eugene, Cassandra’s totally right. I’ve got responsibilities now and I should pay attention to them. Thank you so much for the cake and paints, but we should say sorry and I really should get back to being a Princess again.”

Cassandra was giving him that incredibly annoying condescending look she did oh so often and Eugene had enough. “But she…!” He stopped himself when he looked down at Rapunzel staring up at him. The twinkle in her eyes, the way her smile was so soothing. His anger, well, his anger didn’t subside. But it softened and he let his shoulders slump and his brow to unfurrow. Being angry was bad for his face, anyways, made too many crease marks.

“Whatever you say, Princess,” he said without a hint of sarcasm. He ruffled her brown hair and looked over at the self-superior faced woman. How did she make such a pretty blue dress look so… so… like she could beat you up? It was rude to the dress.

“Cassandra,” he began, saying her name with the emphasis on the ‘and’ the way she hated. “I’m sorry.” He could at least get one last jab in by saying her name _his_ way.

“See? All of us are friends again. Group hug!” Rapunzel pulled Cass and Eugene into a hug on either side of her, both not nearly as into the group hug as Rapunzel. Nonetheless, for her sake, they slowly put their arms around each other, too. Eugene had to admit, she wasn’t as cold or scaly or rough to the touch as he had expected her to be. Hugging with her was actually rather nice. If only she weren’t so _mean._

“Cass, I’ll be right out, promise. But can you give me and Eugene a moment?” Rapunzel asked after she finally released them from her group hug. 

Eugene watched as Cassandra’s anger, well, it probably didn’t subside. She was always angry about something. But her face softened and she let her shoulders slump and her brow unfurrow. Hah! He felt superior that he wasn’t so easily taken in by Rapunzel’s charms.

“Whatever you say, Princess,” she said without a hint of sarcasm. She gave a delicate curtsey to Rapunzel and a death glare to Eugene as she left the room. As the door swung shut he saw her crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.

“You've got to be nicer to her, Eugene. She’s my very first friend outside of the tower.” Rapunzel took Eugene’s arm in hers and stroked it affectionately.

“Hey, I’m your friend and I definitely met you first.” He returned the gesture by patting her hand as it rested upon his shoulder.

“You know you don’t count. You’re my friend, but you’re also my _boy_ friend.” She punctuated the statement by leaning up and giving him a kiss on the lips. Eugene was not someone who blushed at affection, it just wasn’t in his nature personally and biologically. But if he was, he’d have done it now.

“And don’t you forget it,” was his cocky response as he leaned down to give her a second kiss.

“So you’ll try your best to get along with Cass?” She asked him, disengaging and moving the exact set of brushes that covered her itinerary. Had she known where it was the whole time?

“I’ll… try. For you. I’ll… hmm. Is there something she likes to do? I could _try_ the whole friendship thing with her. There’s got to be something she likes that I can hold my lunch down for.” He picked up the two plates of cake and carefully poured his plate onto her plate and then placed it under the now double-caked plate. He went back to sit on the chair from before.

Rapunzel’s lips moved silently as she read the itinerary to herself. She walked to her bedside and reached for a rope on a pulley, giving it two tugs. After a brief moment the rope began to move and Pascal on his branch lowered himself down to Rapunzel height. The frog leapt off, causing the branch to swing, and landed on Rapunzel’s shoulder. “No more relaxation for us, Pascal.” she said to him.

“Blondie- uh, I mean, Rapunzel? Did you hear me?” Eugene said, briefly forgetting her new brown hair. He waved a fork of cake to get her attention only for the cake to fall off and land on the floor next to him. He glanced at it, shrugged, and forked another piece.

Thankfully Rapunzel didn’t notice, although Pascal did and crossed his arms at him. How a lizard could make a face that clearly said ‘really?’ was beyond him. The animals in Corona were something else.

“Hmm? Oh, Cassandra. Let’s see. She enjoys lots of things. Sewing, traditional Corona music, horseback riding… oh! She spends a lot of time down at the barracks. Maybe you two can do something fun there? You can have an archery match or something!”

Eugene chewed on the thought while he chewed on the cake. He didn’t like going down to the barracks. Too many memories. A new one popped into his head as he swallowed. 

“That’s right, viper-lady is the Captain’s _daughter._ Ugh.” Eugene shivered as he thought of the man who only too recently tried to execute him. His hand reflexively went to his neck. “I guess it’s in her blood to hate me.” He forked another piece of cake much more firmly at the thought.

Rapunzel seemed to have finished reading the itinerary and was collecting a few things she’d need for the day. _Probably_ needed for the day, Eugene didn’t know and didn’t really care. “Actually she’s adopted. She was an orphan, just like you.”

This made Eugene stop mid-chew. “An orphan, huh?” he mumbled through cake. He put the fork and plate down on the chest in front of him and stood up, brushing crumbs off his clothes. He swallowed what was in his mouth and walked over to his girlfriend.

“I guess I could make an honest effort, then.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek and patted Pascal on his little froggy head. “We still on for that horse ride tomorrow at least?”

Rapunzel briefly looked up at him from what she was doing as though something just occurred to her. “Of course! But my dad insists some of the Royal Guard go with us. I hope you don't mind?” She looked just as disappointed at it as he felt.

Eugene knew better than to complain and instead chose to adapt. "That's totally fine! We can turn it into a race, us two versus them. We can show them they've got nothing on us!" It wouldn't be too far from the truth to say Eugene liked the opportunity to show off for his girlfriend.

Pascal gave a squeak from Rapunzel's shoulder, causing her to grin competitively at Eugene. "That's a great idea, Pascal. How about we race _each other_ , too. Bet you I can get to the walls past Old Corona before you can."

"A challenge? Well, well your Royalship. I think you're underestimating the great Flynn Rider. Riding is literally in the name, you know." He knew this was just an excuse to divert their ride to one of the kingdom's walls, but he didn't see any harm in it.

Eugene pinched Rapunzel's cheek teasingly. "I accept your challenge!" She swatted his hand away as they both laughed.

"Alright, I'll let you get to your princess-ing." He tried to give another head pat to Pascal but to his surprise the reptile raised a hand and turned it into a high five. Or a high three in his case. "Nice," Eugene complimented the lizard as he made for the door.

Rapunzel returned to her stack of papers, each with a name and crudely drawn face on them. Eugene didn’t give it a second thought as he walked away.

He opened the door and Cassandra whirled around expectantly, but the smile on her face drooped when she saw it was him. “She’s all yours,” Eugene said, ignoring her blatant non-verbal communication. He began to walk by her in annoyance when he remembered what Rapunzel had said.

Orphan.

“Hey Cass?” She stopped just before entering the room, hand still holding the door open. She had a raised eyebrow, obviously wary of what he had to say.

“What do you say we meet up this weekend at the training fields. Have a bit of sparring session. It’ll be fun.” Her upturned eyebrow was joined by its counterpart in what seemed like real surprise at his offer.

“That… That sounds fun. Yeah, I’d like that.” She smiled at him. An _actual_ smile, too. No smug, no sarcasm, no righteous condescension. Eugene smiled back.

“Sunday then,” Eugene tapped his chin while thinking of a time. “Ten in the morning?”

“Ten in the morning. Sunday. I’ll see you there.” Cassandra gave him a nod and returned to entering Rapunzel’s room. Eugene heard her say “Oh, you’re already studying the dignitaries from… ugh, I just stepped in cake!” before the door closed behind her.

Eugene walked down the hall towards his own room, clasping his hands behind his head and cracking his neck by tilting his head side to side. “An orphan, huh?” he repeated to himself. “Must have sucked getting picked up by the Captain. But still…” He stopped at the end of the hall and turned to look at Rapunzel’s room. “I guess I could get to like her.”

He broke into a happy jog back to his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My editor and close friend told me that my initial Chapter 1 did not feel like it represented the rest of my work. At her suggestion I decided to write a Chapter 0 to put before Chapter 1. This takes place the day prior to Before Ever After, and leads into my usual weaving between episodes.
> 
> I hope this enhances your enjoyment of my series!


	2. A Fun Day of Violence and Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insult Sword Fighting, and the Practice Thereof. What the Handmaiden Finds Enjoyable. Two can play the Same Game. A Fool and his Sword are Quickly Parted. Excited Spectators. A Forlorn Look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between "What the Hair?!" & "Rapunzel's Enemy"

Eugene was fighting for his life.

Not literally, of course, but the wooden swords he and his opponent were wielding were less-than-lethal, which was a _very_ different description than _non_ -lethal. He ducked a swing, using his momentum to swipe his own sword horizontally at his opponent, the wooden edge finding nothing but air. If he didn't have the reflexes of the greatest thief in the Seven Kingdoms he wouldn't have been able to turn his hips fast enough to avoid his opponent's thrust that followed. He turned it into a spin away that gave him some space between him and his opponent. The person he was fighting was easily one of the top ten fighters in the Seven Kingdoms, maybe even in the top five if she really tried. And boy, was she trying.  
  
Cassandra was the daughter of the Captain of the Guard and lady-in-waiting to the Princess of the Kingdom of Corona. Right now, she was barely panting after twenty minutes of full sparring. She stood there with both hands on her sword, back hunched and feet apart. It was a pose ready to leap in any direction and one best kept far away from if you didn't want your face to get smashed in. Especially if you had a face as beautiful as Eugene’s. Which no one else did, but the sense of urgency was still there.

"Getting tired, Fitzherbert?" Her voice only hinted at the tiredness she felt, and if Eugene wasn't so skilled at reading these sorts of tells he wouldn't have noticed.  
  
"Not at all, I could go all day." Eugene's voice was not as subtle in its lack of energy, the panting breaths punctuating his sentences the most obvious tell.

"I'm just so concerned about my hair that it's making me sweat, which makes me concerned about my complexion, and you know how that spirals into a whole beauty nightmare. Oh wait, you wouldn’t know about that, would you? You’d have to know what it’s like to be beautiful." To solidify the mocking he weaved his hand through his hair, slicking it back and giving Cassandra a look that, while leagues less sensual than _The Smoulder™_ , had still been enough to distract many a barmaid as he picked their pockets.  
  
Of course, this left him open to Cassandra's lunge, sword raised above her head to be brought down in a powerful chop.

"Whoa, you move fast" he grunted as he leapt backwards, admittedly falling on his bum but turning it into a tumble that he made appear graceful by landing on one knee and holding his arms outward like a showman.

"I mean, it makes sense for a snake lady to move like one!" The line would have been better had he not been panting even more than before. How could she be so collected after so much action?  
  
"I thought you wanted to spar, Fitzherbert, not talk and dance. You're not nearly as good as the Corona Royal Players."  
  
"What!? Those hacks would be honored to have me perform with them!" Eugene said as he rose from his knees and held his sword in a loose, one handed stance opposite Cassandra's firm two handed pose.

"But I'll have you know this is exactly the kind of practice I was hoping for," and with that the ex-thief made a lunge at the frankly frightening woman that she effortlessly blocked; just like any feint should be blocked.  
  
Eugene couldn't help but grin as he used Cassandra's own momentum against her, spinning around in a twirl that positioned him behind her and his foot easily placed upon her bum for a kick that sent her stumbling forward.

"See? Tricks like that need to be practiced first," he barely had time to chuckle when Cassandra was in his face, sword clashing against his own, crossed between them. "Yipes, still fast!"  
  
"Really? You've spent half an hour just to test out your stupid distractions and dumb taunts?" She spoke through gritted teeth and her eyes were narrowed into an icy glare. Oh boy, this was an expression he had seen many times before. Man, was she strong! Eugene was pushed back, barely holding his wooden practice sword between him and her seemingly-much-more-dangerous one.  
  
"Oh C'mon, Cassandra," Eugene put the emphasis on the 'and' part of Cassandra the way she hated, "why else would I want to spend time with a dragon lady like you?"  
  
Cassandra let up, not much, but just enough to allow Eugene to stop stepping backwards and push his sword between them to create some breathing room. Eugene surmised his new style of insult sword fighting was passing with flying colors if it was making her retreat like this.

But then something strange happened. Cassandra's eyes loosened and her furrowed brow went from angry to… something else. What was that? It wasn't an expression he had seen on her before, but it reminded him of some sort of emotion. Oh, right! Sadness! The droopy, upturned eyes and the wrinkled brow, even the slight pout was an expression of sadness! Wait… sadness? Cassandra didn't do sadness. Disappointment, maybe, but not sadness.  
  
"I… I thought for once you wanted to spend time with me. Maybe do something fun and get to know each other. I came here thinking you wanted to be friends, but you’ve done nothing but insult me this whole time." Her voice was soft, almost tender.  
  
Eugene had several thoughts all at once. Great Lost Treasure of Saporia, she _was_ sad! Wait, was this what she envisioned a friendly activity was? She thought less-than-lethal sword fighting was a fun way to get to closer with someone? Had she wanted to… _bond_ with him? Eugene was completely shaken. He took a step back, his hands up in a gesture of peace.

"Cass, I-I'm so sorry. I just thought if I wanted to practice a new fighting technique then a great fighter like you--“ he never got the chance to finish his sentence.  
  
Cassandra unexpectedly sprung forward and had him by the lapels. Suddenly Eugene saw the world upside down, then from the perspective of lying flat on his back. Somewhere along the way his sword had been twisted out of his hand, but he didn't quite know when. He looked up at two wooden sword points directed at his face and beyond them a far better fitting smug smirk than the sad pouting moments earlier.

"Ah… this makes more sense," he tried to say. It was difficult with no air in his lungs and a distinct, pebble-like pain in his back. He winced as she removed the swords from his face. "I think I landed on a something."  
  
"I can use distractions to get the upper hand in a fight, too Eugene." She said his name with venom and sarcasm he probably deserved. She put both swords in one hand as she circled him, extending the now free one to help him up. The self-aggrandizing smile of victory in her face mildly annoyed Eugene. Yeah, nothing put her in a good mood than beating someone in a fight. Especially beating him.

"This was fun, though. Feel free to come by again when you want another serving of butt whooping." At least Eugene had one of his earlier confused thoughts answered: she did think fighting like this was ‘fun’.  
  
The sound of excited clapping and even more excited cheering started from the direction of the Castle. They both looked at Rapunzel standing at the fence of the training field they'd commandeered, Pascal on her shoulder waving a hand he had tuned into the color of a tiny foam finger.

"Woo! That was amazing!" She shouted with all the bubbly exuberance he loved about her. "You two are so cool!"  
  
"Oh hey there, Blondie. How long've you been standing there?"  
  
"I just got here a couple of minutes ago, but it was a _good_ couple of minutes." She made a karate chop motion with her hand and Pascal had to swing himself on her hair to stay on. "I think it would have been much better with frying pans, but still very, very impressive. And it means my two favorite people are finally getting along!"  
  
Eugene suddenly realized Cassandra hadn't let go of his hand after helping him up. She also must have just realized this and quickly let go of his hand to replace it with one of the two wooden training swords.  
  
"I'm gonna go put these away," she said to him, turning to point at Rapunzel, "and don't you forget about tonight, Raps. We've got to go over the Good Will Gopher Grab next week. This is the five hundredth anniversary, so it’s _very_ important."  
  
"Oh, I just finished my interpretation of the Gopher Grab Seal of Good Will! I want your opinion on it before I show it to my dad."

“I’m sure he’ll love it” Cassandra’s voice was only a little sarcastic.

Rapunzel beckoned Eugene over and hooked her arm around his once he hopped the fence. "C'mon, Eugene. I want your help with a painting I'm working on. How good are you at posing as a fallen general on the battlefield?" Pascal made a convincing pose on Rapunzel's head of a hero dramatically reaching out with his final breath before dying on a battlefield of magical blonde hair.  
  
"I dunno, but I was dead for a little while this one time before a beautiful little lady brought me back to life with the power of _love_." The emphasis on his last word was full Flynn Rider. It elicited a laugh out of Rapunzel as they walked away from the training grounds and began chattering about the week they had first met. Eugene was a bit distracted though, still thinking about Cassandra walking towards the weapons shed.

He'd cheated at enough card games to know tells when he saw one, and while she claimed her sadness before was fake, she didn't show any tells that she had been bluffing. She said she was using it as a distraction but…

Eugene looked over his shoulder. For a fraction of a second he made eye contact with Cassandra before she quickly looked back down at something interesting in the dirt. What was that look on her face? Was she looking… what, uncomfortable? Sad? _Forlorn_?

He could think about it later. Brushing it out of his head he turned his attention back to Rapunzel and continued their conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to my friend who has helped me edit this. I'm going to try to keep up weekly updates, so start tuned! Readers, please let me know what you think and which parts you found enjoyable in the comments!


	3. The King's Favorite, Irreplaceable, One of a Kind, Most Favorite Vase. Again.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Same Puzzle, Again. The Guilty Guard. The Attempted Confessions of a Princess. Many Hands Make Short Work. Similarities of the Past, but Not of Opportunities. A Pleasant Realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortly After "Cassandra v. Eugene"

Cassandra was hating her life.

Not her whole life, mind you. If she was pressed on the issue, she’d balefully admit that she quite enjoyed her life. Even the part when she had been assigned to care for a carefree flower child who was naïve to… everything, had eventually become enjoyable. There was something about Rapunzel’s bright floweriness that could crack even Cassandra’s stoney heart. But here, right now? She hated her life.

She had a gluepot on her knee, brush in hand, and a mess of blue shards on a stool in front of her. Again. And it was Eugene’s fault. Again.

First, he had stolen her halberd and used it to, _ugh_ , shave his face, leaving hair all over it. Then he had used it to smash the King’s favorite, irreplaceable, one of a kind, most favorite vase. If it had just been that she’d have been happy enough to leave it alone. Maybe then the King would finally kick the bozo out of the castle.

But then Rapunzel had tricked them into a meeting in the dungeons, locked them in a cell, and tried to make them bond over a dumb scavenger hunt. And sure, after scavenging through the hunt and a little misadventure with two bigger bozos, Cassandra could admit that Eugene may possibly have _some_ redeemable traits.

So, to show him some gratitude, Cassandra had taken it upon herself to fix the King’s favorite, irreplaceable, one of a kind, most favorite vase so he wouldn't get in trouble. And she had done a pretty good job, too! Cassandra prided herself on her ability to do anything and everything in the castle. That included repairing rare ceramics.

And then Eugene had gone and broken it again. Just when she thought he had come to thank her for covering his stupid bum, somehow her halberd came crashing down from the ceiling and smashed the vase. Again! She didn’t even know _how_ Eugene had gotten the Halberd stuck in the ceiling! He refused to tell her, trying one of those dumb “I have no idea how it got there” lines on her.

“Maybe he’s not actually that bad. Maybe if you do something nice for him, he’ll respect you a bit more. Maybe he’s not an entirely useless imbecile. Hah. I shouldn’t’ve been so sentimental. Worthless oaf steals my halberd, not even a day after he said he wouldn’t.” She was grumbling under her breath as she delicately painting a ceramic shard with glue.

There was a knock on the door. With a sigh Cassandra tossed a sheet over her little workstation and pulled her bonnet back onto her head. The last thing she needed was her dad or any of the other Royal Guards finding out what she was doing.

With the practiced face of politeness she used whenever she wasn’t sure who she was going to talk to Cassandra opened the door just wide enough to frame her face. Looking back was the pale and skinny face of Pete the Guard.

“Hi Cassandra. Captain wanted me to let you know he’s gonna be busy tonight so he can’t have dinner with you. Something about a missing crate of crossbow bolts.” Pete smiled the big, innocent smile of someone who was not, in fact, innocent.

“Weren’t _you_ supposed to be responsible for logistics management this month?” Cassandra raised an eyebrow, reminding the guard she was much keener than her father.

“What? Hah. Nooo. You must be mistaken.” The too-innocent-to- _be_ -innocent smile only widened.

“Don’t worry, Pete. I’ve got my own project, actually, so tell my dad he can take as long as he needs to figure out exactly _who_ it was that lost a whole crate of crossbow bolts.” Pete’s smile twitched.

“Hah-hah. Right. Yep. OK, will do! So long, Cassandra.” The handmaiden scoffed as she closed the door upon the swiftly retreating guard. She wasn't going to rat him out, she knew she wouldn’t need to. Her dad would figure out whose fault it was on his own.

But it was still worth it to make Pete and the other guards sweat every now and then.

Just as Cassandra was about to return to her project there was another knock at the door. “OK, Pete. I promise I won’t tell my dad what you did.” She said, opening the door again. This time she was greeted by Rapunzel and Pascal, both smiling bashfully at her.

“Hey Cass, can I come in?” Cassandra relaxed, able to be herself in front of her best friend. This was much more welcome than dealing with a person with a guilty conscience.

“Hey Raps, sorry. I thought you were Pete again. Sure, come on in.”

“I wanted to talk to you about the other day with Eugene and the vase.” Rapunzel stepped in and closed to door behind her, taking a deep breath that Cassandra didn’t consider of any concern as she made her way back to her workstation.

“Oh, you mean the one your good for nothing, lying, pretty boy boyfriend broke two times in two days?” She stared at the ceiling and rolled her eyes, a natural reaction she had when thinking about Eugene.

“Uh, yeah. About that. You see, it wasn’t Eugene who broke the vase,” Rapunzel rubbed the back of her neck and looked shamefully at Pascal on her shoulder.

“Ugh! You don’t need to stick up for him, Raps. We both know he did it. He was the one who had it last, and it fell _right_ when he started talking to me. I don’t know how he rigged it, but I’m not putting anything past ‘the great Flynn Rider.’ Greatest thief in the land, more like dumbest thief in… the land.” Cassandra was pacing now, her frustration preventing her from thinking her insults all the way through.

“That’s not fair, Cass. You’re being way too harsh on him.” Rapunzel tried to corral her best friend to sit on her bed before she worked a groove into the stone floor.

“See? You’re doing it again, Raps. He gets away with so much because you’re always making excuses for him or trying to make him seem like such a suave and cool guy. Just because he’s got a gorgeous face and soft eyes doesn’t mean he’s not still a selfish jerk.” Cassandra pulled the sheet off her hidden ceramics project and focused her eyes on the job ahead.

“You think he’s gorgeous? Since when d-“ Rapunzel paused when she saw the pottery operating table Cass had set up. “Wait, you’re repairing the vase again?”

“Of course. I can’t just leave it broken. It’s _still_ the King’s favorite, irreplaceable, one of a kind, most favorite vase after all. Only this time I’m doing it for the King, not to bail Fitzherbert out of trouble.”

“Let me help!” Rapunzel said with hurried enthusiasm. Here she goes again, always leaping to fix a problem she has entirely nothing to do with. It’s not like _she_ had stuck the halberd in the ceiling and just left it there.

“You really don’t have to; I can handle this myself.” Cassandra protested, softening her tone by the sheer goodness Rapunzel radiated.

“I insist!” Rapunzel said, already standing from Cassandra’s bed and making herself comfortable on the floor in front of the workstation opposite Cassandra. “Pascal and I are really good at this. We did a lot of pottery _and_ puzzles when we were up in our tower, isn’t that right Pascal?” Pascal leapt off her shoulder and landed delicately on the stool, not disturbing a single piece. He squeaked and gave a little thumbs up before inspecting the pieces.

This was one of the things that always bothered Cassandra. Even if she could sew and clean and be courtly and do everything, Rapunzel could do it all and _do it better_. Even fighting, the one thing she thought of as hers, Rapunzel had proven herself the better during the Challenge of the Brave.

Ultimately Rapunzel had brute forced her way into Cassandra’s heart, but that didn’t mean the things that had originally gotten on her nerves had gone away.

They sat in silence for a little while, focused on the delicate puzzle in front of them. The repairs were going much faster than last time with three pairs of hands working together. Well, two pairs of hands and a tail.

“Cassandra? Um… I’m sorry about all this. It’s all _my_ fault.” Rapunzel still had that embarrassed, guilty tone in her voice. Looking into her best friend’s eyes, Cassandra realized she may have been acting too harshly if she was making even Rapunzel feel so guilty over something Eugene had done.

“It’s OK, Raps. I know you were just trying to get Eugene and me to stop fighting so much. It can’t be easy for you to hear us arguing and shouting all the time, and if I have to be honest, your little lock-us-up stunt was actually kind of fun. Besides the hostage taking part, I mean.”

Rapunzel gave a smile at hearing her plan had been a relative success. “So. What did you two talk about?”

“What? Nuhuh, this isn’t some sort of sleepover gossip session where we talk about the boys we like.” Cassandra scoffed at the idea, but Rapunzel just continued smiling at her. Even Pascal had stopped working to look up at Cassandra with an eager expression.

“Ugh, fine. He tried to pry into my life a bit. Dumb things, like what it was like growing up raised by the Captain or what I hoped for in the future. I told him I didn’t exactly have time to dream.” Cassandra felt the pang of sadness the conversation had sparked in her return in recounting it, exacerbated by Rapunzel sitting before her looking so happy.

“Everyone has _dreams_ , Cass. Did I ever tell you the time I made friends with the Pub Thugs by sharing our dreams?”

“Yes. You did. So many times.” Cassandra chuckled. “But it’s true. I’ve always needed to ‘earn my keep'. My dad taught me how to make myself useful, and now I’m handmaiden to the Princess of Corona." She gave a smirk at the very Princess she was referencing.

"I kinda felt like Eugene had to be the same way growing up, just without someone there to guide him towards the right way. I dunno, maybe if he had someone responsible like the Captain in his life, he wouldn’t be so annoying.”

Cassandra contemplated this little revelation. Maybe this was why she had felt comfortable opening up to him earlier: they were both orphans who had to work so hard for so little.

Of course, Eugene had Rapunzel now, and all the benefits of being in a relationship with Rapunzel. Cassandra wished she had those benefits. She didn’t have the comfort of having someone look at her the way Rapunzel and Eugene looked at each other.

“And that was it.” Cassandra chose not to include the awkwardness she had exhibited when Eugene asked about her birth parents. It wasn’t worth worrying Rapunzel about, and Cassandra wasn’t sure why the topic had bothered her so much anyways.

Thinking about her birth parents always felt like knocking on the door of a memory she didn’t want to open.

“See? I knew if I forced you two to be together, you’d learn to love each other!” For some reason Cassandra didn’t like the way Rapunzel had said that, the phrasing giving her a tight feeling in her chest. But Cassandra was confident she could always tell what Rapunzel was trying to say so she didn’t think any further on what she had meant.

“Yeah, well, don’t count on me and Fitzherbert being together like that. But I guess I can kinda see why you love him so much.” There was that tightening feeling in her chest again.

“Then maybe I’m not so sorry after all.” Rapunzel placed the held the final vase shard in place while Pascal applied glue with his tail.

“There! All done. Now just to give it a second to dry and then I’ll bring it upstairs to the dining room.” Rapunzel rose to her feet, extending a hand for Pascal to jump on and climb up to her shoulder. The princess gave her pet chameleon a high five that was a little sticky from the glue.

“Thanks for coming down here to talk, Raps. I feel a lot better about the other day. I’m even not so angry at Fitzherbert for breaking this thing twice in a row.” Rapunzel’s optimism had always been infectious, and for now Cassandra was happy to catch it.

Rapunzel put the vase onto a tray and Pascal hopped on to help steady the fragile ceramic that had been revived twice. She was already moving towards the door.

“Oh, well, that’s the thing I wanted to talk to you about, Cass.” Pascal sensed where this was going and used his tongue to turn the doorknob for their impending quick escape. “The truth is, it was me who took your Halberd. While you and Eugene were in the dungeon, I wanted to give it a try and I kinda got it stuck in the ceiling. So, it really _wasn’t_ Eugene who broke the vase a second time.”

Cassandra had to take a moment to process this new information as Rapunzel inched her way towards the door. Rapunzel’s guilty demeaner the whole time. When she had said this was ‘all’ her fault. Saying she might not be so sorry after all. The stress this whole vase situation had given her.

The true perpetrator had been right in front of her the whole time! She had been too angry to realize Rapunzel had visited her to come clean all along. While one last piece of the puzzle was working its place in her mind, Cassandra’s body acted on the parts already figured out.

“RAPUNZEL!” Cassandra shouted with clenched fists.

“Gotta go!” Pascal’s whole body turned yellow in fear as Rapunzel dashed out the door, closing it behind her. Cassandra practically leapt across the room to throw the door open and yell at Rapunzel.

“We’re not done, Rapunzel! You can’t hide from me forever! I know where you sleep!” Cassandra was shaking her fist in anger.

Not feeling up to chasing the barefooted princess down, Cassandra unclenched her fist. If she did give chase, Rapunzel would probably stumble over something and smash the vase for a third time and Cassandra did not have time to deal with that.

The final puzzle piece of realization fit into place now. Eugene hadn’t been lying to her. Cassandra’s cheeks rose into a genuine smile, not a smirk but a genuine smile at this thought, and for now Cassandra didn’t try to suppress it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! I'm going to try to keep going with weekly updates. Hopefully I'll be able to go through the whole series without straying too far from canon, but who knows.


	4. During the Snuggly Duckling Talent Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Talent for Money. The Pleasure of Mimes but for One. Puppet Shows, and Their Successes. One Guard's Money Pouch. Another Guard's Precious Comb. A Cobbler's Belt. Part One of a Couple's Conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between "The Return of Lance Strongbow" & "In like Flynn"
> 
> Part 1 of 2

Rapunzel was having the time of her life.

She often said that sort of thing, one of her many catchphrases being “Best Blank Ever!” In this case she was having the best ‘Talent Show at The Snuggly Duckling’ ever. Admittedly it was also the first, so technically it was also the worst, most exciting, most boring, and every other superlative, but it was the sentiment that’s important.

It had been Lance’s idea to hold a talent show at the Snuggly Duckling, an idea Rapunzel had wholeheartedly supported. It would go a long way to easing any animosity that existed between the townspeople and the Pub Thugs, helping to unite Corona and fostering happiness throughout the kingdom. At least that’s how Rapunzel felt; she knew Lance was only interested in money, money, and more money.

The ex-thief was a regular of the Snuggly Duckling. Occasionally he was also the cook, if only because the service was so terrible and no one stopped him just hopping into the kitchen. Supporting this meant buying raw ingredients for cooking the food, various beverages to keep the taps flowing, and having enough money to get someone _else_ to drive out any spiders. While the Pub Thugs themselves were a relatively steady source of income since they had embraced chasing their dreams and gotten legitimate jobs, the tavern still only barely made even. Somewhere from this problem arose the idea for this Talent Show.

Rapunzel had desperately wanted to participate, but Lance had insisted it just be the Pub Thugs performing. The tavern would have to pay Rapunzel if she performed, while the Pub Thugs were essentially free labor due to the outstanding tabs most of them had not paid. Rapunzel had finally relented only when Eugene charismatically pointed out the Pub Thugs would be much better accepted by the townspeople if they showed off their less-threatening talents, and Rapunzel would undoubtedly outshine them with how amazing she was.

So, Rapunzel had contented herself with helping to decorate and advertise the event. What Lance had planned to be a few extra patrons to overcharge for a night turned into a packed house of everyone from the castle town, including a few guards. It was a lot more work than expected, and Lance barely had any time free from the kitchen for the first half of the night. But it only showed how much of a success the plan had been.

The night had started off a bit rough, having Big Nose open with some poetry had been a terrible idea. While Big Nose’s greatest love was his love for love, his greatest talent was not in rhyme, rhythm, and meter. A larger woman seated at a table close to the front, whom Rapunzel assumed was Big Nose’s girlfriend Assunta, seemed to love his performance and to Big Nose that was all that mattered.

The following act had made up for the show’s rocky start: Ulf performed a very elaborate vaudevillian mime act, complete with pratfalls and climbing imaginary rope. It impressed everyone except for Pete, who spent the entire performance pretending he wasn’t terrified with the help of Stan’s reassurance and the occasional step outside for ‘fresh air’.

The night went on like this, some acts being particularly good and others quite bad. But when Shorty performed a terrible mess that he seemed to either make up or forget about along the way, it only made the talented performances that much more impressive. Rapunzel hadn’t thought Fang’s puppet show would be as popular as it turned out to be, but following Shorty anything was the pinnacle of art.

“Wasn’t that a treat everyone? C’mon, give it up one more time for Vladimir!” Lance lead a clap for the intricate sculpture of a unicorn Vladimir had made on the spot and was now wheeling off stage on a cart. It actually _was_ impressive to watch him turn a slab of marble into a unicorn in twenty minutes.

“Our next performer for the night is a very familiar face to most of you, although those of you in the Royal Guard may be more familiar with the _back_ of his head, let’s give a Snuggly Duckling welcome to Flynn. Ryder!” Lance stretched out the ‘r’ at the end of Eugene’s pseudonym as he shuffled off the stage.

“Woo! Go Eugene!” Rapunzel shouted from her table in the back. It was finally the master thief’s turn to do what he did best: thieve. As Eugene ascended the stage it was apparent only Rapunzel was welcoming him with much enthusiasm.

“Thank you, thank you everyone.” Eugene began, giving a bow to halfhearted claps. Evidently having previously robbed half the audience and roguishly taunted the competency of the other half made for a chilly audience. “I’ll need a couple volunteers!”

Lance sat at the table with Rapunzel, giving a chuckle as he sat with obvious tiredness. This was one of the last acts of the night so besides the occasional drink, Lance didn’t need to be in the kitchen anymore. “Hello your highness. Enjoying the night so far?”

“This is perfect! I didn’t know Vladimir was so delicate. I’ve got to get him to teach me his technique.” Rapunzel had never had the opportunity to work with marble before, not being a thing you can easily get into The Tower.

“Where’s Cassandra and your adorable froggy friend?” Lance looked under the table as though Pascal would be there. Or Cassandra, but that was much less likely.

“Pascal was being mopey he wouldn’t get to perform on stage, so I think he and Maximus are going to do something together instead. And Cassandra’s not really into this sort of thing.” Rapunzel shrugged while Lance nodded. A talent show was definitely _not_ a Cassandra sort of activity.

“Anyways I’m so excited for Eugene’s act. I can’t wait to see what Eugene pulls out of his pocket.” Rapunzel said, literally at the edge of her seat with anticipation.

“Hah! You mean what he pulls out of _their_ pockets.” Lance corrected her. On stage Eugene had wrangled Pete, Stan, and Feldspar to be his involuntary volunteers. He was shaking hands with all three of them, giving each a hug as he spouted inane platitudes to them and the audience.

“Here, watch his left hand.” Lance told Rapunzel, huddling closer to her to reveal this trick-of-the-trade. “See how he’s using his right hand to hold Pete’s? He’s giving it a big shake and then, here he goes, yep. He’s pulling him into a hug and… there! Did you see it?”

“What, what was I supposed to see?” Rapunzel said worriedly.

“It’s OK, I guess you’re not _supposed_ to see it. Oh! He’s asking Stan to take off his helmet. This one should be easier to notice if you’re looking for it; watch the helmet closely. See how Flynn is spinning it? Here he’s pretending to put it on backwards, ha-ha, very funny, but when he takes it off, he’s pulling something out and putting the helmet back on Stan’s head…”

“Was that… Stan’s mustache comb?” Rapunzel’s voice raised slightly in shock.

“Hush, girl! Keep it down. Stan doesn’t even notice his helmet’s a little lighter. Now watch Feldspar. This one is actually pretty obvious.” Eugene was inspecting Feldspar awkwardly, patting him on the shoulder and turning Feldspar around as though he were examining his clothes.

“See how Flynn just adjusted Feldspar’s shirt? And how he’s spinning behind him? That’s not just to make the mark dizzy, but also to distract what _Flynn’s_ doing with _his_ shirt. Did you catch it?”

Rapunzel squinted her eyes, leaning forward. “No… I’m not sure what I’m looking for.”

“Really?” Lance said, making a face of pride for his oldest friend. “Well, just sit back and watch.”

“Now Feldspar, if you please, can you walk to the other end of the stage?” Eugene said in the overly theatrical voice he had been using this whole time, a voice Rapunzel recognized as his swashbuckler voice.

“H-well, okay, although I don’t see h-wh-“ Feldspar hit the ground. He had tripped on his own pants, which had fallen to his knees and exposed his underwear. Unsurprisingly there were little boots all over it. There were shocked gasps from an audience that had previously been getting bored.

“Ooh, I’m so sorry Feldspar! You will probably be needing this.” Eugene helped the cobbler to his feet and undid an extra belt no one had noticed he had slipped on himself.

“That’s my belt!” Feldspar said, while holding his pants up with one hand.

“Yeah, you know what? I thought it looked so nice and I only had one belt, I thought maybe it would complete my look is all. Nice booties on your booty by the way.” Eugene was giving Feldspar and the audience the cockiest grin imaginable while the disgruntled shoemaker was staring daggers at him.

Rapunzel and Lance were sniggering in their table in the back, but the audience was giving that awkward laugh large crowds make when they feel a very loud silence.

“C’mon my good man! It’s just an act. Don’t be so serious about this, you agree right, Stan?” Eugene had turned to the guard and was stroking his goatee. With a narrow white, long handled comb.

“The ox horn mustache comb my wife gave me!” Stan removed his helmet with surprising alacrity, eyes wide as a bug. He was switching his gaze from the helmet to Eugene so fast he almost made an afterimage.

“Ox horn, huh? Man, I got to get me one of these.” Eugene tossed the comb back to Stan who clumsily caught it but dropped his helmet instead. Lance looked smugly at Rapunzel who looked smugly back at him. She felt good she had caught this one.

Pete was frantically patting himself down now, trying to figure out what Eugene had taken from him considering he was the first one that fell victim to Eugene’s machinations.

“Don’t worry Pete, it’s ok. I don’t have anything of yours.” Eugene said as he patted the frantic man on the shoulder.

“My money pouch! You’ve got my money pouch!” Pete’s voice was frantic.

“I most certainly do not!” Eugene said with mock indignation. “Feldspar’s got it.” The audience murmured their confusion as Feldspar began searching his own pockets.

“What? H-why, I’ve no idea how this got here!” said the cobbler, pulling the skinny guard’s money pouch out from his apron pocket. “This is h-where my cobbling’ nails go!” Now Feldspar was joining the frantic voice club.

“Oh, yeah, your nails? Those are in Stan’s back pocket.” Eugene said, still leaning on Pete’s shoulder. On cue Stan reached into his trousers’ back pocket and pulled a leather baggy with the image of a tiny nail emblazoned on it.

“And before you ask, here’s your money pouch, Stan. Although you ought to be thanking me, this thing is practically empty, and those nails are worth more than what you got here.” Eugene once again tossed something at Stan, who dropped his precious comb to catch the money pouch.

“Huh, I didn’t see any of those.” Lance said, scratching his head and furrowing his brow. This gave Rapunzel a sense of pride that her man could fool even other thieves.

In contrast, it did not make the audience happy at all. There were murmurs of concern, tables of people checking their own belongings just in case. The concerned murmurs grew to disgruntled mumbling.

“Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good,” Lance stood from the table, “excuse me your highness, I’m gonna try to make sure a mob doesn’t start.” Lance made his way to the stage loudly clapping his hands in front of him.

“Wow, amazing, amazing, wouldn’t you say everyone?” Lance said, ushering Eugene off the stage before the disgruntled mumbling turned into angry boos.

A bit more obviously than he intended, Lance pulled Stan’s comb out of Eugene’s pocket and gave it back to the retreating guard, face perplexed how something Eugene had _just returned to him_ had been pilfered again.

“We’re going to set up for our next act, folks, but I promise this is going to be a good one! Our very own Hook Foot is going to be putting on a dance number you’re not going to want to miss.” Some of the other Pub Thugs began pulling a piano on stage and strategically placing boxes. Except for Ulf, who was miming carrying very heavy objects onto the stage instead.

For now, the audience did not seem happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so I began writing this chapter and realized about 2,000 words in that it was going to be way too long to be only one. So I've split it into two, but as you noticed there's no mention of Cassandra in this part. Worse, this means Pascal will be missing for TWO whole chapters!
> 
> I promise the next Chapter will be so full of our favorite couple talking and flirting about their favorite viper-handmaiden-warrior-woman that it'll satisfy shippers of all kinds. As always, please leave a comment letting me know how you liked the chapter and what you think is coming next!


	5. After the Snuggly Duckling Talent Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Importance of Smugness. The Flirtatious Couple Ignore the Dance. A Seductive Challenge! Fresh Air Walks Under the Moonlight. Important People, and the Unchanging Opinions Of. Familiar Statements. The Love of Similar People. Part Two of a Couple's Conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between "The Return of Lance Strongbow" & "In like Flynn"
> 
> Part 2 of 2

Rapunzel was worried for Eugene’s life.

Lance sat the two of them down at the table while Eugene’s expression was one of confused innocence. It was as though his whole body was saying ‘Who, me? I didn’t do anything officer!’ which Rapunzel suspected to be as natural to Eugene as breathing.

“I don’t think they’re happy with you, buddy. You may have gone a bit too far there.” Lance was patting Eugene on the back and was looking around the room like he expected a riot.

“Oh, c’mon. I didn’t _keep_ anything. And it was all innocent entertainment. You agree with me, right Blondie?”

Rapunzel’s raised her eyebrows and gave a hesitant smile. “Well…”

“Not you, too. Look, I’ve got very specific talents, and this _is_ a talent show. What did I do wrong?”

“Well, for starters you were kind of a smug jerk through the whole thing.” Lance said with only a touch of sarcasm.

“But that’s the most important part of the bit! If you’re not one hundred percent confident people will stop paying attention to _you_ ,” he held open one hand in front of him, “and they start paying attention to what you’re _doing_.” Eugene opened his other hand to reveal Lance’s earring.

“What the-,” he reached to his ear to find it bare, “give me that!” Lance snatched the earring out of Eugene’s hand and gave an annoyed look as he put it back.

Rapunzel shook her head and took Eugene by the hand. She looked him in the eyes and gave an affectionate giggle. “It’s fine, Eugene. The idea was to show off your best talent and I, for one, am proud of you for it.” He was always so cute when he was flustered like this.

“Ha! That’s funny. Flynn here always said his best talent was with the _ladies_. Hey Princess, did he ever tell you about how he stole the Baron’s prized Stalyan? Oof!” Lance was cut off by an elbow to the side from an obviously embarrassed Eugene.

“I think it’s time you went to help Hook Foot.” He said between clenched teeth.

“Well alrighty then,” Lance stood from the table. “But it’s a good story.” Lance gave a wink at Rapunzel and headed towards the stage. Seemed that had been his payback for having his earring pilfered.

“It’s really not.” Eugene said in that bashful tone Rapunzel found cute.

“Oh, relax, it’s totally fine. I know you used to get into all sorts of ‘crazy shenanigans’ before we met, so if Flynn Rider had to ‘get biz-zay’ in order to steal a horse, I’m not going to judge Eugene for it.” She couldn’t quite tell if she had said that expression right, but she backed it up by giving her own variation of _The Smoulder_ ™.

“Hey, that’s not half bad.” He said quicker than she expected and not mocking her for her expression. She must have used it correctly! She decided to double down on teasing him by ramping up the flirtation.

“C’mon, show me how Flynn Rider does his thing. I’ve heard sooo many stories about how the master thief was oh-so-suave. Was that really you or was that just from those old story books?”

“I’ll have you know that part was from the books _and_ about me, thank you very much. I could charm the pants off any woman in the Seven Kingdoms.” Rapunzel couldn’t stop herself from laughing out loud at his choice of phrasing.

“Really? The pants _off_?”

“What? Oh! No. Well, yes. But no!” Now it was Rapunzel’s turn to be smug, and she was going to take advantage of it.

“Then I challenge Flynn Rider to prove to me you can really be as charming as you say you are. And I mean Flynn Rider, not my adorable Eugene Fitzherbert.” She booped him affectionately on the nose with a single finger for emphasis.

“Well then,” the ex-thief seemed to gain a hefty dose of confidence and adopted his swashbuckling voice again. “That shouldn’t be too hard with you here, Sunshine.” He shifted his chair closer to Rapunzel and threw his arm around her shoulder, leaning in with romance in his eyes.

Rapunzel giggled again and gave him an over dramatic eyeroll. “Nuhuh! You can’t seduce me; I already love you. You’re going to have to work your magic on someone who doesn’t already know all your conniving ways.” Privately Rapunzel admitted to herself that he _did_ make her heart flutter whenever he turned on the charm, but she loved him for so much more than his charisma.

“Well I’m not going to go off and flirt with any random woman.” Eugene said with his regular voice, straightening up but leaving his arm around her shoulders. Rapunzel blushed at how sincere he was in saying that; he really was a devoted boyfriend.

“How about this, then. I’ll pick someone and you can just… explain to me how you’d hit on them. Like I’m like a little Pascal on your shoulder listening in on your thoughts. That way you’re not hitting on anyone and I get to ride along.” This time Rapunzel leaned into Eugene, filling the space he had vacated when he had straightened up.

“So just a game? No actual flirting with someone else?” Eugene leaned back into Rapunzel’s snuggle.

“Just a game. I know you’re mine and nothing’s going to ever change that, but sometimes I wanna know more about what you used to be like. Before you rescued me from The Tower.” Even this much time later she still felt that place deserved the capital Ts.

Eugene leaned into Rapunzel again, more relaxed. “OK. I’m game if it’s _only_ a game. So, who will the lucky lady be? One of the women from the city? Or how about that new girl at the castle, Fate or Faith or whatever her name is? Ooh I know, how about the infamous Lady Caine we’ve got locked up in the dungeons? That’ll be fun!”

“Hmm, I was thinking someone we both spend a lot of time with. One of my handmaidens, perhaps?”

Eugene made a hesitant face. “What, you mean Friedborg? She’s a great girl, always uses just the right amount of starch on my shirts, but, uh, she’s kind of an impenetrable wall. I can’t really tell what she’s thinking half the time. Most of the time, really.” Rapunzel laughed at the image of her Eugene trying to attract the attention of the fish-eyed lady-in-waiting.

Even she agreed that Friedborg was an enigma, and probably wouldn’t be entertaining for this game anyways. Even if Friedborg was precious to Rapunzel as one of her handmaidens, she wasn’t going to force Eugene to figure her out.

“Hahah, no! That would be silly.” She gave him a playful punch to his chest. “I meant Cassandra.”

The hesitant face only got worse. “ _Cassandra_?” He emphasized the ‘and’ part of her name in the way Rapunzel knew her handmaiden didn’t like. “I don’t think so, Sunshine. I don’t think there’s a snake charmer alive that could charm _that_ snake. I didn’t even _think_ of her as an option for our game.” He sat up from their snuggling to make the over exaggerated look of disgust.

“Oh ho! So, there is a challenge too difficult for the great Flynn Rider.” Rapunzel returned to giving her boyfriend a smug expression.

“No, no, no. Flynn Rider can rise to any challenge. Even one as tough as Cassandra.” This time he said her name right. She enjoyed how easy she could goad him into doing things sometimes. She knew she was naïve, but sometimes he was pretty naive, too.

“Then start us off, what would you do to win my handmaiden’s heart?”

Before Eugene could respond the Snuggly Duckling erupted into thunderous applause. Some people were even standing. On stage Hook Foot had both arms in the air and his regular foot extended in front of him. He was panting heavily from what must have been a successful act that the two of them had completely missed.

“Oh, please! He gets this much applause while they practically booed me?” Eugene’s expression returned to the indignation from before. Rapunzel didn’t want to have to deal with _that_ again, so she stood and placed her hand on Eugene’s shoulder.

“Let’s get a head start on the crowds and head back to the castle now.” She didn’t want jealousy of applause to derail the fun she was having. “C’mon, stand up.”

The unhappy look on his face melted as he looked up at her, softening into the flirtatious one she preferred. He didn’t say anything but nodded instead. Standing up he turned to the stage and waved to get Lance’s attention. He gave his friend a salute for a night well done and gestured that he and Rapunzel were going to head out. Lance gave a happy wave and Rapunzel waved back as she and Eugene made for the door.

The crisp evening air was extremely refreshing after having spent the better part of the afternoon and well into the evening inside of the tavern. Rapunzel hadn’t realized how much a person could get used to the stuffiness of large crowds in a confined space until now. She took a deep breath with her arms spread, folding them behind her back as she twirled to her boyfriend. She enjoyed the feeling of weight her hair gave when she spun like that. Most people don’t realize how strong Rapunzel was, easily carrying and spinning seventy feet of hair. When she was still lived in The Tower, she regularly hefted Mother up the side with her hair alone.

No, not Mother. That woman was not her mother.

But Rapunzel knew she would always unconsciously think of Gothel as her Mother. Sometimes a person makes such an important impact on someone’s life they’d never be able to think of them as anything else. For good or bad.

Thankfully she was taken away from those thoughts when Eugene linked his arm with hers, taking the lead on their stroll back to the castle.

“Alright Blondie, is Cassandra really going to be the game’s flirtation target?”

“Yep! Lay it on me Mr. Rider. How would you charm the pants off Cass?” Rapunzel leaned against Eugene’s arm as they walked under the moonlight.

“Whoa, now. Hold your horses there, you can’t jump into the pants-offing just like that! Seduction isn’t one size fits all. If I were running- I’m sorry, I meant if Flynn Rider was running a job that required a quick, one-night seduction, Cass would flat out not be an option. There’d have to be at least one other lady to use as a mark. Heck, if there were a certain kind of gentleman available then I would go for him if it meant getting the job done quickly. Cass would be a three- or four-day project. A week on the outside.”

Rapunzel’s brow rose at his inference that ‘a certain kind of gentleman’ would be an option for him. She made a mental note to ask about this part of her boyfriend’s past life later.

“I guess that makes sense. I mean, _I_ certainly didn’t fall for you the moment we met, after all.”

“Of course not, Sunshine. You fell for me the moment I whipped out _The Smoulder_ ™” He performed it again for her, causing them to break into laughter. If anything, tonight had been a great night just for moments like this: the two of them walking through the to the castle like they had on their first day together.

“Ok, handsome, whatever you say.” It actually had been within the day that she had fallen for him, but she certainly wasn’t going to tell him that. “Back to our game.” Rapunzel chided him, giving a little push to his side.

“Right, right. Cassandra… let’s see. First, I’d need to find out her interests, the things that’ll make her comfortable and more importantly let her guard down. It’s usually something like writing or gardening or under water basket weaving.” Rapunzel once again giggled at his occasional foolishness.

They were crossing a bridge now and Rapunzel took the opportunity to disengage from Eugene’s arm and hop onto one side of the bridge. She didn’t take many walks at night and walking along the bridge wall in the cool night air was a new kind of fun.

“That’s where you show interest in her activity, but not a skilled interest.” Eugene hopped onto the other bridge wall. He looked like he was having difficulty balancing. “See, that’s where most people get it wrong. You’re not trying to show off. If you make her feel like she could teach you something, she’ll want to spend more time with you. That’s your opportunity to shower her with compliments. Whoa, that’s slippery, why's it got to be so wet? You’re really good at this balancing thing, you make it look so easy.”

“Oh, it’s not that hard. You just got to think with your feet and feel the bridge.” Rapunzel felt emboldened by his compliment and decided to hop off the bridge side with extra grace and flair. Eugene just awkwardly stepped off.

“See? It works just like that.” Eugene said. He had an affection smile on his lips but a triumphant smile in his eyes.

It took a moment for Rapunzel to realize what he meant. Compliment and make them feel like they could teach you something: she had responded exactly how he had described she would. She gave him a gentle push, not too hard but enough to make him stumble a little.

“Alright, wise guy. Very clever. But you’re not supposed to be seducing me. Cassandra, remember? What would be her interest then, hmm? She’s not a walks-under-the-moonlight and bridge balancing kind of girl.”

“Hmm.” Eugene pondered for a moment and looked like he was trying to recall something. “I guess… probably something to do with combat. Archery or sword fighting. Maybe horseback riding. She said sparring had been fun for her once, so I’d probably try to get her to train me in something.”

Rapunzel thought back to a month or so ago. She’s found them engaged in ‘epic battle’ so technically he had already done that. When she had talked Cassandra about it later, she had been even more evasive than usual.

“Uh-Huh… And then what? Now that you’ve gotten Cass interested what do you do next?”

“That’s where it kinda gets hard to describe. You just… talk. Strike up a conversation that gets her to trust you. Share something about you and try to get her to share something about her. It gets people to open up about their past and talk about their hopes and dreams. Because Cassandra is a tight lipped, closed off, cold hearted-“

“Eugene.” Rapunzel cut him off.

“Right, right, seducing. How about ‘not-so-open’, better?” Rapunzel gave him a nod, “Because she’s not-so-open, you got to give her time. Generally be nice to her, show her you appreciate how much effort she puts into things.” His eyes drifted towards the night sky, no longer looking at Rapunzel.

“I don’t know, I think she’s never had a single moment just for herself. She was taught to make herself useful, to ‘earn her keep’. I’ve seen her try so hard to make everyone around her satisfied and get zero acknowledgement for it. I kinda felt like if Cass didn’t have someone looking over her shoulder all the time, she’d have been able to find her own way. Maybe if she had discovered things for herself in life, she wouldn’t be so annoying.”

Rapunzel stopped walking, letting Eugene overtake her. She was shocked that he was being so introspective. She had always known him to be a considerate, sensitive man but she had not expected him to say something this insightful. There was a wistful tenderness in his voice, like he’s personally felt this pain once.

More importantly, Rapunzel felt like she’d heard something like this before.

“Blondie? You alright?” Eugene had noticed she was no longer at his side.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m just, uh…” Rapunzel scrambled to get her thoughts in order. “I’m just surprised that you’re so good at this seducing thing! Oh wow, it even worked on me just now.”

Eugene looked at her for a moment before grinning. “Told you” he said, reclaiming his smugness. She was relieved she could rely on his ego to help her get away with her covering up her thoughts.

She picked up her stride to get back to Eugene’s side and linked their arms once again. She could see the lights of the city in the distance, and the bridge that connected the mainland to Corona proper. She rubbed her cheek against her boyfriend’s bicep and smiled at him.

“I’m so lucky to have you” she said.

“Does this mean I won our little game?” There was the confidence that Rapunzel better associated with Eugene than the wistful introspection from earlier.

“Yes, Eugene, you won.”

“You mean Flynn Rider won,” he reassured her. “Flynn Rider may be able to sweep even a dangerous bird of prey like Cassandra off her feet, but Eugene Fitzherbert only has eyes for you.”

As Rapunzel looked up at his affectionate expression and returned it in kind, she couldn’t help but see the similarities between the two most important people in her life. Maybe that’s why she loved them both so much? If only they realized how alike they are, maybe they’d learn to care for each other like she cared for each of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's Part 2 of the Snuggly Duckling Talent Show. I hope you enjoyed it, I ended up doing a lot of rewrites, including an allusion to Chapter 2. I think my chapters are only going to get longer from here.
> 
> As usual, please let me know your thoughts on this chapter and what parts stood out to you! I always appreciate constructive feedback.


	6. Talking to a Horse About a Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Ride to Think. Flaunting Oneself. Riders Versus Steeds, and the Differences Thereof. Horse Fathers and Rule Sticklers. Realizations on the Appeal of Hair. Quips, Drinks, Darts, and Brawls. The Taming of the Shrew-ish Mare. Ignorance of Irony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortly after "In like Flynn"

Eugene needed to reflect on his life.

In particular, Eugene was concerned about what the life had in store for him for the future. He was sitting upon Maximus, only loosely holding the reigns. Without an actual destination in mind, the pair simply ambled across the Corona Bridge into the neighboring forests.

The previous week had been tense for the Princess’s boyfriend. It seemed King Fredrick had a silly rivalry going with King Trevor of the neighboring Kingdom of Equis. Wrangled into a prank war that Eugene quite frankly found hilarious, Eugene had ended up locked in an Equis cell with the King of Corona. Eventually they had made their way out and even succeeded in their pranking objective, but Eugene was more worried about the time he had spent in the cell with King Fredrick.

No, not ‘King Fredrick’. That man would be his father-in-law someday. Maybe not someday _soon_ but Eugene was willing to wait. In a surprising confession, his future father-in-law had expressed a respect for Eugene that he had not seen coming. The seriousness with which he had said it was encouraging to Eugene at the time, but the more time he had to think about it the more it made him worry.

He was going to be _King_ someday. Him! Eugene Fitzherbert nee Flynn Rider. The world-renowned thief and flaunter of the law. And here he was a marriage away from being a King. And a King was the law. Would he need to flaunt himself? It would make as much sense as the rest of his life.

Lost in his own thoughts, Eugene didn’t notice Maximus was walking through a familiar part of the woods.

“Let’s stop here, Max. It’s as good a place as any.” Eugene dismounted and took an apple out of his satchel. “Here you go, buddy. Thanks for the ride.”

Maximus happily took the apple, giving his rider a nod as he began to munch. Eugene walked over to a particularly large tree and placed his hand on it, looking it up and down.

“Did you plan to bring me here, Max, or was this just a coincidence?” Max didn’t respond, too engrossed in the apple. Or at least Eugene liked to think it was because the horse was focusing on eating the apple. It was just as likely Maximus simply didn’t respect him enough to respond.

“This is pretty close to where you and I first met.” Now that got the horse’s attention. Maximus looked up, down, and made a circle like he was a dog chasing his own tail. “Guess you didn’t plan to bring me here after all.” Eugene chuckled as he laid his bag down and sat against the tree, looking up at the horse.

“See, just over there. That’s where Rapunzel made us become friends. You remember that? I was sleeping on that rock until you started slobbering all over me. Then you took my shoe.”

Maximus followed the gestures Eugene made and, with a final crunch on the apple, gave a snickering huff. The horse gave Eugene a look he did not like, one that seemed condescending and self-righteous.

“Yeah, yeah. We shook hands, remember? Or, hoof and hand. Anyways, I remember us fighting all the way to the castle, stuff happened, I got arrested, and then you sprung me out of the clink. Good times.” In response to the lack of apple and look of condescension, Eugene pulled another bright red apple out of his bag and tossed it to the horse.

“I really appreciate that, by the way. I always feel a good jailbreak helps bring people together.” Maximus just shrugged and went about eating the apple. How a horse can shrug was beyond Eugene’s understanding, but there was no other way to describe what Maximus had done.

“Hey, when I landed on you from the Vladimir catapult, was that when you decided to be my horse?” Maximus stretched his head closer to Eugene and gave a very threatening huff.

“OK, fine, that was when you decided _I_ was _your_ rider. Same thing. Equal partners!” Eugene crossed his arms behind his head and kicked his legs before him, continuing his earlier contemplation.

“Say, I’ve got a whole bag of tasty apples here. How about I keep giving them to you and all you gotta do is listen to me think out loud. What do you say?” Eugene sweetened his offer by taking another apple out of his bag and spinning it on his finger. Maximus looked contemplative, once again a thing Eugene wasn’t sure horses could actually do, and then gave him a nod. Then, making a circle like a dog, the stallion curled up on the grass like a faithful companion protecting his master.

“You are one strange stallion.” Eugene said with a smile, tossing the strange stallion a fourth apple.

“So, I think I’m going to be King someday,” Eugene began. “You saw me propose to Rapunzel. I mean, sure, she didn’t say _yes_ but she definitely didn’t say _no_. A very solid ‘later’ is good enough for me. I can do later. But the later is what’s getting me all worked up.” Maximus tilted his head at Eugene as a sign he was paying attention.

“When that later comes, I’ll have a huge responsibility on my hands. Rapunzel will be Queen of Corona, which would make me King. I don’t know how to be king!” Maximus gave an emphatic nod that, while maybe being a bit too emphatic, matched up with how Eugene was feeling.

“I’ve only ever looked out for myself. Of course, when I was in a crew, we looked out for each other. Had each other’s backs, right? Most of the time, at least. I, for one, never liked leaving Lance behind when things got tough, but when I had to, I did. He certainly left me behind just as many times. When the chips are down you got to know when to abandon ship.”

Max shook his head and raised an eyebrow. Horses can raise eyebrows, good to know.

“I know that’s a mixed metaphor. Chips, fold’m, bad weather, abandon ship. Whatever. Don’t be such a stickler for the rules.” Eugene lifted a lazy hand and flicked his wrist at the stallion dismissively. “Now, where was I? Right, responsibility.

“I love Rapunzel. That’s never going to change. There’s something about her; the happiness, the joy, the look in her eyes. You get what I mean, right buddy? She’s light and brightness and sunshine incarnate. Literally, in fact, what with the whole Sundrop thing.”

Maximus agreed enthusiastically. The horse displayed a loyalty to the Princess that went beyond duty to royalty. He appreciated Rapunzel well before her royal lineage had been discovered.

“But taking care of her and taking care of a whole Kingdom are totally different things. I’m barely responsible for myself, can you imagine me being responsible for the lives and well-being of an entire kingdom?” Before Maximus could respond Eugene gave a quick “Don’t answer that.”

“No one taught me these kinds of things. I had to teach myself.” Eugene noticed the horse was making an expectant gesture and realized Maximus had finished his apple. Eugene rolled his eyes and tossed another apple that was promptly caught right out of the air.

“You’re responsible. You’re the most responsible horse I know. Admittedly that’s not a very populated category, but you know what I mean. How do you do it? Was your horse daddy as much of a stickler for the rules as you are?”

Placing the apple on the ground, Maximus turned to his saddlebag and pulled out a dirty piece of folded paper with his teeth. Eugene unfolded it, revealing a portrait of the Captain of the Guard atop Maximus. The Captain held his sword ahead while Maximus had two opposite legs lifted as though they were charging into battle. Eugene concluded they both looked like pompous idiots.

“Ah, this makes sense,” He folded the paper and handed it back to Maximus. “But I don’t think I can ask the Captain for advice on this kind of thing, bud. I get the feeling he doesn’t like me very much.”

Maximus neighed an agreement and returned to munching on his apple.

“So what if I’ve made him look like an incompetent fool a couple dozen times, and disrespect him every chance I get? He tried to have me hanged once, that’s got to make us even, right? Thanks for saving me from that by the way. Not a fan of doing the rope fandango.” His hand instinctively went to his neck just thinking about it.

“I guess I could try to have a talk with the Captain. I did pass the test for being a guard. Technically I didn’t even break any rules doing it, either! And now I’m doing the whole ‘how to think like a thief’ training thing with the boys. That’s got to be enough goodwill earned to deserve a serious sit-down chat, right?”

Maximus made a decisive crunch of the apple.

“No go, huh?” Another apple was tossed Maximus’s way. “Well, Max, got any ideas on who else can teach me this whole ‘being responsible’ scam?”

The horse looked thoughtful for a moment before putting the apple down and giving a nasally huff at the ex-thief.

“ _Cassandra_? Assolutamente no, amico mio. That’s Italian for ‘no way my friend’ cause there ain’t no way I’m going to go asking _Cassandra_ for help on something like this. She’ll make a holiday of making fun of me. Asking _her_ to help _me_ become responsible would be like admitting to her that I’m _not_ responsible!”

Maximus adopted a sarcastic look that, once again, horses shouldn’t be able to make.

“Yes, I heard what I just said. Zip it.” The regrettably irresponsible ex-thief pushed himself against the tree to help himself stand. “C’mon, get up. Last apple, alright?” he said as he tossed it to Maximus and indicated for him to rise.

“Cass is way too stuck up; that’s not the kind of responsible I’m looking for. She may be smart and capable, but she’s totally repressed. I just wanna take her out and show her a good time so she can let her hair down, ya’know? I mean, her hair isn’t as nice as Rapunzel’s hair, but I do got a thing for brunettes. That’s about the only bad thing about Rapunzel getting her magic hair back; it got all blonde again. But, uh, don’t tell Blondie I said that, I like her plenty with seventy feet of golden hair.” For a moment Eugene paused as he learned something about himself. Did he have a thing for hair? Was hair his… _thing_? This was probably a road best left untraveled, or at least left untraveled until he wasn’t talking to his horse.

“What I’m trying to say is, Cass is a strong and energetic woman who obviously cares about Rapunzel, so I know she’s got some warmth in her somewhere.” Eugene hooked a foot in Maximus’s stirrup and hoisted himself up onto the horse’s back. “If she’d just relax more and come out of her shell, she’d be a lot more fun. Plus, she’s got that dark and cunning thing going on about her that I like in a woman. She reminds me a lot of my ex-fiancé, ya’know.” That last sentence got Maximus’s attention.

“Don’t ask. It’s a long story and it’s not like it’s ever going to come up again. C’mon, Max, let’s go home.” Eugene shook the reins back towards the castle, but he didn’t really need to ‘steer’. At the leisurely pace they were going Maximus knew the way he wanted to go himself.

“I think that’s why Cass bothers me so much. I can’t resist picking on her cause I’m trying to _force_ her to have more fun. When she’s annoyed and snapping at me, making all those witty comebacks, she looks like she’s enjoying herself. See, that’s a girl I’d want to spend a lot more time with. Trading verbal blows, matching each other quip for quip. Cass and I could go out for drinks, hustle some thugs in a game of darts, probably watch a bar brawl break out. Maybe _cause_ a bar brawl to break out. That’s something Sunshine would never wanna do. She’d _stop_ a bar brawl. She _did_ stop a bar brawl.” Eugene thought back to when he’d tried to scare her into running back to her tower by bringing her to the Snuggly Duckling the first time.

“Anyways, being more laid back is so much better than having responsibility drilled into you. I don’t think I could ever be like Cassandra or the Captain. In fact, they ought to be more like me!” If Eugene weren’t riding on Maximus’s back, he’d see just how much a horse can roll its eyes. Which turns out is a lot.

“Yeah. You know what? I think being relaxed isn’t so bad; the big responsibilities can wait. Rapunzel is still taking time to learn, after all, so I can take my time, too. Corona’s at peace and Rapunzel would be the one in charge anyways… yeah, yeah. All I gotta do is support her being Queen while I enjoy the royal treatment! Take a dip in the royal pool, try on that furry, capey thing. Take snooze on the royal throne! Declaring decrees, negotiating accords, proclimating uh… proclimates? All that can be Rapunzel’s gig. See, now I just can’t wait to be King!” He pat Maximus on his mane, truly proud of the clearly genius conclusion he had arrived at.

“Man, see this is why we’re so good together. I need someone like you who can just listen to my problems. We’ve come a long way, my faithful steed, we’ve come a long way.” Eugene felt his bottom leave the saddle briefly as Maximus bucked him at the faithful steed comment.

“Right, right, equals. Partners. Say, partner, how’s about we take a crack at your problems? I hear you’re not making much headway with Fidella. My finely groomed friend, if you’re trying this hard and she’s not budging, she might just not be into you.” Maximus gave an unhappy, almost worried neigh. All lips and spittle.

“But that doesn’t mean you should give up, buddy! It’s not like there’s any other horse super-cops around, and definitely not a horse as smart as you. Just keep trying, hop right back into the… wait, uh… well, just keep trying!” This elicited a more confident whiny from Maximus, comforted despite the abandoned saddle metaphor.

“If you want to woo a girl as serious as Fidella, you gotta be nice to her. Meet her halfway and show her you respect her as an equal. Toss her some compliments here and there! You might just find out you’ve got a lot more in common than you think. You both like apples, don’t you?”

The two rode back to the castle just as casually as they’d rode out, and all the while Eugene was completely oblivious to the irony of his romantic advices to Maximus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a very short chapter of Eugene contemplation. But as many stories do, it grew and grew in its telling. I'm about halfway through episodes of the first season and I've still not gotten much interaction between our two protagonists. Does that bother anyone? Should I hop to having the ex-thief and lady-in-waiting talking it out? Or is this outside-looking-in approach work for you?
> 
> Please let me know in the comments, or at least give me a kudos if you think things are fine as is. As always, thanks for reading!


	7. Lady-in-Waiting-Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Light Workload. What the Rock Represents. Short an Assistant. Who Is Center Stage With the Princess? Opportunities, and Letting Them Go By. Chances, and Leaping at Them. Begging, and Choosing When. Something Entirely New and Beautiful. Trying It Your Way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The day after "Great Expotations"

Cassandra was questioning her choices in life.

Specifically, she was questioning whether she had completely ruined any chances of achieving her life dreams yesterday. It had been a complete mess of a day; one she was still feeling the physical tolls from. Why did Corona even _have_ a science expo? Since when was it worth it to celebrate the skills and talents of people who could barely rub two sticks together to make fire?

That was a harsh thought, far harsher on the people of Corona than they deserved, but she was too tired and worried to properly care. Besides, there were at least some people in the kingdom who were truly genius. Her thumb ran across the faceted surface of the ‘Cassandrium’ Varian had created for her she held in her hand. Created and _named_ for her.

She looked out the window of the alcove, the dress mannequin next to her clad in a dress that was going un-mended. Whenever laundry was done in the castle, the ornate dress worn by the Princess and her Royal Highness needed to have their sleeves and skirt removed from the bodice. If not, the delicate parts would get caught and torn on the washboards they used. Today her only duty in the castle was sewing the pieces back together, a task she could do with her eyes closed and having a conversation with a hyperactive flower child.

It seemed Queen Arianna had ordered her workload lessened after the debacle yesterday, a bit of pity that upset Cassandra more than it comforted her. She wasn’t so weak or upset that she would need the equivalent of a day off! But in all likelihood, this had been the machinations of Rapunzel who was, even now, holed up in the royal library trying to find anything that could lead to answers about the Black Rocks Varian had shown them. Maybe Rapunzel had wanted her to join the impromptu study session, but her body was relieved to not have anything strenuous to do, even if her pride would never acknowledge it.

Cassandra could see the city from the window, full of energy and life. The people of Corona were going about their day as though there hadn’t been a world ending tornado exploding in the sky the day before. She imagined the city torn apart by spires of Black Rocks, buildings destroyed, and lives lost. A shudder ran down her spine at the thought. She hoped the city would never, _ever_ look like that.

“What’ya got there?” a voice from the hallway said. It was melodious voice of a carefree man. It was the most annoying sound in the world. It was Eugene Fitzherbert.

“None of your business, Fitzherbert.” Cassandra said bitterly, uncurling her legs from the window bench and smoothing her lady-in-waiting uniform. The sound of a chair being dragged across the floor grated on her ears. Didn't he know what a dragged chair did to the finish of finely lacquered wood floors? Obviously not: he was Eugene.

“Ooh, is that the Cassandra Rock Varian made for you? Can I see?” Eugene hunched forward in his floor damaging chair and leaned on his knees with one hand. The other was making a half-hearted attempt to grab the Cassandrium out of hers.

“It’s called Cassandrium and no, you may not.” She swatted his hand away and gave a heavy sigh from her nose. “I’m really not in the mood right now, Fitzherbert, so if you could just kindly bug off, I’d be so much happier.”

Eugene sat up and leaned back in the chair, crossing his leg over the other. “Ah! But that would imply you have more than one mood to begin with, and we both know your only mood is ‘I hate everyone’. Technically that means you’re not in the mood but also _in_ the mood as well!” By the Seven Kingdoms, he was annoying.

“If you want to hang out here and sew shoulders onto dresses, be my guest. I don’t have to be here and listen to your stupidity. There’s plenty of other places in the castle to sit and think.” She stood from the window bench but was stopped by the hand on her wrist.

“What, no snappy comeback? I thought you’d have at least one or two quips in you before you admitted defeat.” He gestured at the window bench. “For real this time, what’s going on with you? Is it the Cassandrium?” His voice was no longer melodious and carefree, replaced instead by soothing tones usually reserved only for Rapunzel.

Surprising herself, she found she was once again sitting on the window bench, stared at by eyes of worried concern. She shifted her gaze downward and furrowed her brow, not wanting to look into those gentle, brown eyes. She thought being looked at by him like this would bother her, but for some reason it didn’t. 

And _that_ bothered her.

After a loud silence, she began speaking to the floor, not looking up at him. “It’s not the Cassandrium. The Cassandrium is actually pretty sweet. It’s what the Cassandrium represents.”

“I don’t know what _you_ think it represents, but to me and most everyone else that rock represents you and Varian saving the day from a self-absorbed, so-called Science Master. For someone claiming to be so smart, he really should know not to pull random levers. And that’s coming from a guy who’s pulled his fair share of random levers. Nine times out of ten? Bad idea. I’ve still got the scars to prove it.” The strangled attempt at a chuckle escaped her nose despite not wanting to give his comedy any recognition. It was the idea of him getting hurt that made her laugh, she tried to convince herself. He wasn’t _really_ that funny.

“That’s not what happened. Varian and I didn’t save the day, it was you and Rapunzel and your giant hair machine,” she continued, fiddling with the purple pendant before setting it on the counter with the sewing supplies.

“We wouldn’t have done it if you and Varian hadn’t told us what to do. And it was a wind machine designed _for_ hair. Which, by the way, is probably not going to come back anytime soon. Way too much effort when I’ve already got perfection and Sunshine’s magically indestructible hair doesn’t really need much help drying on its own.” He ran a hand through his hair, egotistically. She was much more familiar with this nuisance version of Eugene and consequently, more comfortable with it.

“You really have no idea what Friedborg and I have to do to Rapunzel’s hair after she takes a bath, do you?” Eugene just shrugged and cocked his head as if to say he didn’t care. Yep, annoying Eugene was the Eugene she was more familiar with.

“Anyways, this whole mess wouldn’t have happened if I had kept my promise to Varian and hadn’t left him with no assistant.”

“Bah, he had a replacement assistant! He had Shorty.”

“Right, so no assistant.”

“Fair point.” Eugene tapped a finger on his temple and pointed it at Cassandra. “But c’mon, Varian’s a good kid; he totally understands. You didn’t have a choice. It doesn’t matter what you promise to who: if the Captain gives you an order to be a bodyguard, there’s not much you can do about it.”

“But it wasn’t an order.” Cassandra sighed and once again diverted her gaze. “I chose the assignment over helping Varian. I practically _leapt_ at the chance to play the bodyguard. He was counting on me and I totally abandoned him. This was after he spent the whole day helping me with all my lady-in-waiting duties, too.” The corner of her lips rose up remembering the term 'co-ladies-in-waiting'. “I let him down after all his effort and everything went downhill from there.”

Eugene stood from his chair and stretched his shoulders, walking around the dress mannequin, looking the dress up and down. “Eh, he’ll forgive you. The kid clearly has a thing for you, and when a guy is that age and got a crush, he’ll forgive her for anything. Especially if his crush is a super attractive lady like you.” Cassandra’s head snapped up to look at him, but he was too busy trying to fit the sleeve back onto the bodice as though it’d snap back on like a puzzle piece. Where had _that_ come from? And why did it make her feel… warm inside?

“Besides, this was your big opportunity! Successfully being a bodyguard must have totally impressed the Captain _and_ made your dad proud, what with them being the same person.” Eugene put the sleeve back down, apparently giving up trying to reattach it with his willpower alone and sat on the window bench next to Cassandra.

“I let Varian’s sand mixer fly into the guy.”

“Oh. I guess I didn’t see that part. That’s… kinda missing the whole guarding the body part of bodyguarding.”

“Uh, duh. Kind of knew that already. If you’re trying to be comforting, stating the obvious isn’t really it.” She rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

“It was just _one_ slip up! Don’t worry about it, these things happen all the time. Everyone’s forgiven you and you can just move on.”

“I can’t _have_ any slip ups, Eugene. One slip up leads to another slip up somewhere else, and before you know it there’s slip ups all over the place. People _expect_ things from me; there’s responsibilities I have to fill. There’s responsibilities I _could_ fill.” She turned to him intent on venting all the pressure she was under if she wanted to get anywhere and noticed just how close he was. When had that happened? Had he always been sitting so close to him? She looked at the chair he was sitting on before and then back at him.

Immediately Cassandra stood up and started pacing with her arms crossed tight over her chest, holding onto each elbow. She remembered him getting up to mess with the dress mannequin but didn’t notice when he had sat down to be next to her. Now he wasn’t.

“Ugh, not like you’d understand what it’s like to have responsibilities. The most difficult expectation people have for you is to not say stupid things in front of important people. And you still can’t live up to that.”

“Hey, I say smart things in front of important people, too!” Eugene said like that wasn’t a tacit admittance that he _did_ say stupid things in front of important people.

“You’re not supposed to say _anything_ at all, Fitzherbert!” She wasn’t quite yelling. “Ugh, or maybe you can. I don’t know. You get to be Raps’s _boyfriend_ and be with her at all the _big events_. I do all the work, but do _I_ get to be with the Princess? _No_ , instead _I’ve_ got to be waiting in the wings, out of sight and out of mind. What Iwouldn’t do for it to be _me_ with Rapunzel center stage where everyone can see _us_ together!” She stopped in her tracks and stared at the far wall like it was the abyss. What had she just said?

Maybe she really did need to take the day off to recover; her body was not working properly. She resumed her pacing, her arms significantly more animated as she talked, punctuating each word with a swipe or gesture.

“Whatever. My point is that I _never_ get chances like this. I have skills, Fitzherbert. I can run circles around every one of my dad’s men and outfight them with one arm tied behind my back. Protecting a VIP is something I could _do_ , and it was offered to me. To me! Everyone would see I’m being wasted sewing these _stupid dresses_ , living my life with a feather duster in one hand and a washcloth in the other. I could show not only my dad but everyone in the Royal Guards, even His Royal Highness himself, that I am so much more than some _dumb_ lady-in-waiting. I always have to _be_ in-waiting! I _needed_ to jump at this chance because if I didn’t… if I didn't, how long would I have to wait for something like it to come my way again?”

Cassandra’s tone took a dip, the frustration sliding downward with each sentence into grief. “But because I jumped at the chance, the whole expo fell apart. If I had let someone else protect Master St Croix and helped Varian like I promised, his experiment would have gone off without a hitch and none of yesterday’s troubles would have happened.” She stopped pacing and gesticulating her arms, turning away from Eugene. She crossed her arms around her chest like she was giving herself a hug. Her body must obviously not be working properly.

“Is this what happens when I step out of line? The city almost gets destroyed, people are hurt, and I betray the trust of people relying on me? Maybe I’m better off just waiting. Being a lady-in-waiting-forever.”

Cassandra realized how crazy she must look bouncing between fury and misery in the span of a single rant. She had meant to merely vent her frustrations but had clearly overshot and overshared. She expected Eugene to be shocked and intimidated that she’d exploded like that, another example of her ‘venomous, dragon-lady’ reputation. Or worse, he’d laugh at how pathetic she was, that she cared so much about ‘just another day in Corona’. He’d have some scathing verbal blow that’d cut her down and humiliate her.

Instead when she turned back to look at him, he had his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled in front of his pursed lips. Nowhere in his eyes was shock, intimidation, laughter, or condescension. 

He looked like he was _listening_.

“Cass, there’s not a man, woman, or child in this kingdom who doesn’t know how strong, brave, and capable you are. You’d have to go outside of the kingdom to find someone who would think you’re just some dumb lady-in-waiting.” Eugene stood from the window bench and leaned his arm on the shoulder of the dress mannequin.

“Here’s the thing. That attitude? It sounds weak.” Cassandra held her breath, mind already racing to form scathing insults in retaliation. “It sounds weak, defeatist, unmotivated and so very un-Cassandra.” She noticed he pronounced her name properly this time.

“Your life isn’t laid out for you from your birth; it doesn’t matter who your parents were or how you grew up. It doesn’t even matter what your lot in life is right now. You get to be the one who decides what you’re going to be.” Eugene draped his arm around the armless dress mannequin like it was his friend after a night of drinking.

“Growing up in the orphanage I used to imagine my parents were swashbuckling explorers searching the world for treasure and once they found it, they’d… come back and get me.” Cassandra shifted her weight from one foot to the other; she had heard this part of his story when Rapunzel had locked them in the dungeons together.

“But when I came to grips with the fact that wasn’t going to happen, I decided I’d be the swashbuckling explorer they weren’t. If the option was between being a beggar and a chooser, I was going to be a chooser.” _This_ part of the story was new. Eugene let go of the dress mannequin and leaned against the counter of sewing supplies, picking up a spool of thread and idly tossing it into the air with one hand.

“I said to myself, I’m going to form a team with Arnwaldo and we’re going out into the world to make names for ourselves. No, really, we made names. That’s how I became Flynn Rider and he became Lance Strongbow.” The oh-so-nimble master thief almost dropped the spool he was toying with, fumbling to catch it and making an unspooled mess when he did.

He gave a cocky grin as though that would excuse the mess he had made and was totally oblivious to the fact he had just casually divulged sensitive information about his oldest friend. He really _was_ bad at keeping secrets.

“I took every chance I was given. Sure, sometimes it went wrong. Most of the time it went wrong, in fact. But I picked myself up and kept making my own luck.” Eugene pushed off the counter and walked towards Cassandra.

“I stole, scammed, and cheated for every drop and every smidge I could get, but I never stopped trying to take what could be mine. If I can end up living in this castle when I started in an orphanage, imagine where you can end up when the castle is where you started.” His voice had dropped back to the soothing, Rapunzel-exclusive tones and he was standing right in front of her now. Normally she’d be annoyed at his invasion of her personal space, not trusting him to be this close, but right now she wasn’t. Maybe she was just too upset, or her body was too tired. It must be something like that.

“Varian made a sack of sand into this thing and named it after you.” Cassandra’s eyes snapped to the Cassandrium Eugene was unexpectedly holding between them. Her gaze darted to the spool of string that now occupied the space on the counter where she swore she had left it, then to the shiny, purple pendant in Eugene’s hand, then to Eugene's face. When had he…? She quickly snatched it out of his hand, more aggressively than she had intended, and purposefully put it back onto the counter.

“He took a sack of sand and somehow made _jewelry._ And he had good taste naming it after you, cause you’re not that different from it. You may feel like you’re something everyone walks all over, but if you pull yourself together and throw in a lot of force to what you want to be, you’ll come out as something beautiful that the world has never seen before.”

Cassandra felt her cheeks flush at his words and was relieved he could no longer see her face. He had been so close to her and did not sound like himself at all. Why wasn't she as annoyed by that as she should be? She must have been hit with debris yesterday, otherwise her chest wouldn’t be thumping the way it was. She knew for certain now: her body was _definitely_ not working properly.

“Eugene…” she began in a soft voice. She wasn't sure where she was going with the sentence, but it had escaped her lips without consent from her brain.

“ _Man_ , that kid was being real slick with that whole Cassandrium business. A beautiful jewel that’s a brand-new element _and_ naming after the girl? Anyone would fall for moves as smooth as that. I wouldn’t, of course, but I still got to give the kid props for his charm skills there.”

Eugene’s obnoxious laughter and the arrogant way he returned to the chair he had dragged over brought Cassandra out of her reverie. After taking a deep breath, she turned back to him with a fresh face. She felt more at ease now that he was back to his usual, annoying self. He had propped the chair up on its back two legs and was balancing on them like a child, teetering back and forth.

“Can you stop that?” Cassandra’s voice was more normal now. With a thud Eugene returned all four legs of the chair to the ground, crossing his own in one fluid motion. Did everything need to be a production with him?

“So, what’s your plan with that? Gonna wear it around town?” He said, gesturing at the Cassandrium.

“No, of course not.” Cassandra gave a mellow laugh at the ridiculous idea. “I’ll keep it in my room, though. It’s sweet.” She looked at the pendant Varian had given her and thought of the brightness in that boy’s smile. Picking up a needle and the unspooled mess Eugene had created, Cassandra finally sat at the dress mannequin to do some work.

“Um, Eugene?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming to talk. I feel a lot better. I never thought you’d be so concerned about my well-being.” His kindness was refreshing, and he had offered some legitimately useful advice. If his delinquent attitude had landed him success, her diligence could only improve her chances. Provided she made the effort to _take_ those chances.

“Don’t worry about it. Rapunzel wanted me to check up on you.” The casual tone he said that with caused a twinge of pain in Cassandra’s chest. It hadn’t been his decision?

"Although, I think she was just trying to get me out of her way in the library. I like books and all, but the ones about history and legend are just so boring! I don’t think she’s going to find anything in there about those Black Rocks.”

“She told you about that?” Cassandra said, looking up at him with a deep furrow on her brow.

“Of course, she tells me everything. Why?” That Eugene looked surprised she was frustrated only frustrated her further.

“Ugh! C’mon Raps, what are you doing? This is supposed to be a secret.” She held her head in her hands and shook it in vigorous dismay.

“Hey, hey, I promise I won’t tell anyone,” said the man who casually revealed his compatriot’s true name moments before. “But if what Varian said to you two about those rocks is true, it won’t matter if I keep my mouth shut or not.”

Cassandra gave a sigh, sitting back up again but her shoulders were still slumped. He had a point: if they couldn’t figure out what the deal was with the Black Rocks and Rapunzel’s connection to them, things would only get worse.

“So, here’s what I was thinking. Why don’t we ride out there and—” Eugene was cut off by a knock at the door. Stan’s mustached face peeked through, breathing a bit heavily like he had been running through the castle looking for someone.

“There you are. Eugene, the Captain says you were supposed to meet him an hour ago to talk about security protocols for when you and the Princess are out of the castle? He's super angry, says this is the third time this week you’ve not shown up.”

“Oh, was that _today?_ It must have totally slipped my mind.” Even Stan could hear the insincerity in Eugene’s voice. “Go tell him I’ll be right down. I promise.”

Stan’s eyes turned into slits of disapproval and he looked to Cassandra for confirmation.

“Go and tell my father he’ll be right down. _I_ promise.” More confident in her reassurance than his, Stan’s head retreated from the door and they heard his footsteps marching down the hall.

“Right, where was I? Oh! Yeah, we ride out there and—” this time it was Cassandra’s upraised hand that cut him off. “Oh, c’mon.”

“Go. You can’t keep running from this meeting with my dad, you might as well get it out of the way before he makes it worse.” Her head bobbled as she spoke with the slightly lidded eyes of someone who knows they’re right and knows you know they’re right.

“Oh, fine. But you’re good here, right? I could stay if you still need someone to talk with.” Cassandra wasn't sure if he was being genuine or just grasping at an excuse to not go to the meeting.

“Yes, Eugene. I’m fine.” She said, waving him off with an annoyed hand.

“Ta-ta” Eugene said as he made his way out the door.

Cassandra watched him go, only to see he had left the chair where he had dragged it. She rolled her eyes and stood to carry it back to its proper place.

“That worthless, lazy…” she stopped mid lift. Straightening up, she smoothed the front of her dress and gave a wry smile.

“Sure. Why not try it your way?” Cassandra grasped the corner of the chair and dragged it back to where it had come from, giving no concern for what a dragged chair did to the finish of finely lacquered wood floors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter, both because I got to get our two protagonists together for more belligerent sexual tension, but also because I think I did so while keeping within canon characterization. I hope I succeeded!
> 
> This chapter is something close to twice as many words as the first chapter, and I'm getting the feeling the chapters are only going to get longer from here. Maybe I shouldn't have split the Snuggly Duckling Talent Show in two and kept it as one long chapter? Or maybe I should have split this chapter into two?
> 
> Let me know if you guys would prefer I release more multi-part chapters at a regular pace, or continue writing until the story is done even if that means I may take longer than a week to update.
> 
> Also, as always, please share any and all feedback you have! Did I fit the characterization? Could you imagine this happening between the episodes? Did I make any egregious historical inaccuracies?


	8. Explaining Love to a Chameleon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Portrait of Changing Colors. The Comfort of Familiarity. Courtesy Screens, and the Importance of Changing Behind One. The Mating Habits of Cold Blooded Lizards. Love, and the Freedom Gained From the Boyfriend. Love, and the Abuse Received From the Mother. Love, and the Confusing Feelings From the Lady-in-Waiting. Having no Time to Think, and Being Thankful For.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortly after "Under Raps"

Rapunzel enjoyed painting from life.

Of course, she could paint from memory, and she certainly could paint from her overactive imagination, but there was something soothing about having a person, place, or thing in front of her, and all she had to do was replicate it onto canvas. 

Today, the princess had her best friend sitting beneath a bouquet of colorful flowers, a simple and peaceful scene that would help get her creative juices flowing for other projects.

At least, it should be simple, but her best friend kept subtly changing colors when she wasn’t looking, matching a different flower each time.

“Hey now! Stop that,” she giggled, flicking her brush at him so a spot of blue paint landed on his nose. He matched it all over and laughed back. “I’m almost done, anyways.” The chameleon returned to his natural green color and sat still for her.

“And… there. What do you think, Pascal?” Rapunzel turned the canvas around to show her handiwork: Pascal sat between the flowers recreated in Rapunzel’s unique style, but she had added from memory herself behind the flowers in the center, with Cassandra on the left, and Eugene on the right.

“It’s the four of us!” Pascal gave two thumbs up. Well, he held his hands in a way that looked like a thumbs up, but being a chameleon, he did not actually have thumbs to up. She turned the canvas back towards herself, holding it in both hands to admire her handiwork.

“Let’s put it over here.” The little section she set aside for arts and crafts didn't have much space for paintings anymore. Despite the size of her room in the castle, Rapunzel had immediately gone about filling it with paints, books, boardgames, and every possible knickknack she never thought she’d have. The freedom the large space provided her was breathtaking, even after months of living in the castle.

“What should we do next?” She smiled at the chameleon excitedly. "I'm feeling creative!" With barely a running start she gave a hop and slide to her bed. Even with her bare feet, she could slide on the freshly waxed and mopped floors.

Though she had handmaidens and the various castle servants, she still insisted that at least once a week she’d wake up at 7:00AM and do what came naturally. Sweep until the floor was clean, polish and wax, do laundry, and then mop. It made her feel more at home. Good habits weren’t worth breaking, after all.

Pascal was climbing up the far wall to one of the upper windows of her room, squeaking for her to join him. Using her bed as a springboard, she leapt up and grasped a hanging segment of her hair, easily climbing it to Pascal’s height and swinging over to him. It wasn’t necessary to climb to one of the upper windows for this view; she had a perfectly serviceable balcony that overlooked the entire kingdom. But when it was just her and Pascal, she reverted to ingrained behaviors. She felt comfortable in tall, narrow spaces.

“I’ll never get tired of this view,” she said to the lizard as it hopped from the wall onto her shoulder. The city was gorgeous, covering the island right up to the water. She watched as caravans of trade carts crossed the bridge; the lifeblood of the city.

She had read something about how defensible the city was and why the castle had been built here, and that the island could withstand a siege for months if need be thanks to those regular caravans. And if a siege went for longer than that the tunnels of Herz Der Sonne allowed supplies to sneak over from the mainland. None of this was necessary anymore now that the Seven Kingdoms were at peace, so instead it made for a beautiful landscape.

Pascal squeaked and made another gesture at the cityscape, swinging his tail around like a brush. “Oh, a bird’s eye view! That’s a great idea, Pascal.” She grabbed a segment of hair and spiraled down it to the ground. “What made you think of that?” she asked trotting over to her paint supplies.

Pascal jumped onto the table and stood on top of a sky lantern giving a chirp and raising his arms upwards like he was lifting the balloon up. “Oh, right, Andrew’s balloon!” He nodded and scampered back over to her.

“That was some ride, huh? I would love to ride in it again, but it got pretty torn up during our fight the other night. I don’t think anyone in the kingdom knows how to make it work again." She considered the options. "Maybe Varian, but after the expo fiasco I think he wants to focus on the Black Rocks growing across Old Corona.” Pascal nodded at the assessment.

Still, Rapunzel’s thoughts drifted to what it had been like on the balloon. “You know, Andrew may have turned out to be a jerk, but that didn’t take away from how beautiful the view was! Ah, I’m so glad I could enjoy it a little bit with Eugene before everything that happened. Feeling the wind in my hair while Eugene held me felt like the most romantic thing in the world. I don’t know how to describe it, Pascal. Everything just felt so free!” She stared dreamily out the window she had just climbed down from, the angle from her art station providing a perfect view of the clouds passing overhead.

Pascal nodded and scampered over to the sky lantern on the table, standing in front of it with his arms spread out in an imitation of her and her boyfriend's antics. He had been on the balloon, too although he had been sensitive enough not to disturb the two while they had their moment.

“It was all so… lovely.” Rapunzel sighed. She looked at the painting she had just finished, set to dry among the painting supplies. To one side was Eugene, and on her other was Cassandra. The memory she used as inspiration was their joyful faces when they were in the balloon basket, and in a flash of inspiration she placed the canvas back on the easel and began painting furiously.

“Some ropes here, put some thatch work here. Get the bottom curve of the fabric just like that… maybe a different color. Yeah. Oh! And don’t forget that fire shooty thingy.” She worked fast and Pascal barely had the time to make his way across the floor and up Rapunzel’s back to see what she was doing.

The simple background that had flanked the four of them before was replaced with the balloon basket, ropes running to the bottom of the balloon and the burner just behind Rapunzel’s head. Pascal in the painting was now sitting on the edge of the wicker basket and Rapunzel was holding the flowers he had been sitting in front of before. The proportions were slightly off, a consequence of her sudden change in creative direction, but that complaint didn’t last against her creative fervor.

“Hah! Now _this_ is wonderful.” She put her hands to her hips in pride, but quickly pulled her hands away when she realized she was still holding the brush and palette. “Oh, uh, I should clean this up.” She mumbled to pascal sheepishly.

She put the palette down and dunked the brush in a jug of murky water among its brush brethren and made her way behind the courtesy screen to change. 

Pascal hopped onto one of the many chairs strewn about the room; Eugene liked dragging them to new places and leaving them there. 

Not this one, though.

Rapunzel had _some_ idea why he left a chair facing directly at the backlit courtesy screen. He was her boyfriend after all. But she daren’t say anything _out loud_ about it for the sake of _decency_. Besides, Cassandra made use of the chair quite often so it must be in a good spot.

Cassandra. 

Her lady-in-waiting weighed heavily on her mind. “You know, Cass seemed so happy when she was with Andrew. Obviously before he revealed he was a Separatist of Saporia, and _she_ revealed she knew all along and was running a sting operation on him.” She enjoyed saying the words ‘sting operation’ in that way. It sounded like cool undercover stuff.

“But I guess looking back, Andrew was trying too hard and was way too charming to be real. I was just so giddy about Cass being in love to notice.” Rapunzel came out from the courtesy screen wearing a dress remarkably similar to the one she had just dirtied. She made a mental note to include more variety in her casual outfits.

“Seeing Cass in love was so exciting! You think so, too, right Pascal?” She scooped her best friend in her hands and plopped him on her shoulder. He gave a hesitant squeak.

“Well, sure. I know that. But just because she was faking doesn’t make it any less real.” Pascal tilted his head and crossed his arms, causing Rapunzel to give a weak smile. “Doesn’t it?” Pascal shook his head.

“OK, yeah. Faking _means_ it’s not real, but she had to be faking real feelings, right? I did see she kept the rose he gave her in her collection wardrobe! She wouldn’t keep it if it didn’t mean _something_ to her.” Pascal didn’t seem convinced. He leapt off Rapunzel’s shoulder and began climbing back to the high window from earlier.

With practiced skill and strength Rapunzel scaled her golden locks to the rafters of her room, following him up to the upper window. “You’d have to be a pretty good actor to convince someone you like them, and I don’t think… hmm. Actually, Cassandra can be a pretty good actor if she tries.” She curled up and rested her head in her hand, looking out at the woods on the mainland.

“So, you don’t think that’s how Cass would _really_ act if she were in love?” Pascal crawled up and around the alcove’s round frame, stopping on the sill of the similarly round window. With a squeak he changed colors to match Cassandra’s and pretended to swoon. Rapunzel giggled as Pascal returned to his green hue and shrugged.

“I don't think I can see Cass doing that either.” Rapunzel resumed staring out over the kingdom as the morning sun made its way across the sky. Not just _the_ kingdom, but _her_ kingdom. Now _that_ was a thought she didn’t want to dwell on and pushed it to the back of her mind. There’d be time to think about that in a couple of weeks when her parents would go on their anniversary trip and she’d have to be the acting monarch.

A chameleon chirp brought her back to the present and this time it was her turn to shrug. “I don’t know, Pascal. I just do. She’s my best friend, I want to know everything about her, share everything with her.” Quickly Rapunzel included “I mean, she’s my best _human_ friend. Nobody’s closer than the two of us.” She affectionately gave him a single pat on the head.

This seemed to placate the reptile and just to be sure, Rapunzel picked him up and gave him an equally affectionate kiss where she had bopped him. This elicited a happy, squeaky laugh.

“How about you, Pascal? What do you think about love? Any cute chameleons got your eye?” Pascal waved a dismissive hand at that idea, giving her a look that clearly said he was ‘above all that nonsense’. Now it was Rapunzel’s turn to give a happy laugh. “That’s right. How could I forget.”

After Rapunzel had revived Pascal from that terrible snake bite, she had asked Mother Gothel for as many books on lizard biology she could get. At that time, she had to keep Pascal a secret until she was old enough that Mother Gothel wouldn’t overpower her outright over keeping a ‘gross pest’. Rapunzel had convinced her it was one of her many passing fads.

Turns out chameleons had an aloof relationship with ‘mating’. When she was younger Rapunzel hadn’t really understood what that implied at the time, but she absorbed knowledge like a sponge and knew the issue was a non-starter with Pascal. Or any chameleon for that matter.

“Well humans aren’t like that. We need each other. It’s built into us that we want to be near other people. That’s why it was such a relief to meet Eugene!” Pascal turned red and held his hands up to his mouth to make sharp talons, imitating the drawing of ‘ruffians’ she had grown up fearing. “After I was sure he wasn’t a ruffian, of course.” Pascal always knew how to coax a grin out of her.

“Eugene was the first human being I interacted with other than Mother. You have no idea the relief I felt in knowing there were gentle and kind people out there. You remember the books we used to read and how excited I was when a prince would profess her love for a princess, and they’d live happily ever after.” Rapunzel’s smile only grew bigger and she felt so happy she could sing.

“Before I found out I _was_ a princess all of that was just a story. But now it’s _real!_ I’m living my life after happily ever after. True, there’s certain customs I have to follow, and several small obligations I can’t avoid, but besides all the rules I have to remember, commitments I have to keep, and names I need to remember, I’m overjoyed this is my life! And it’s all thanks to Eugene taking me away from The Tower.” She sighed thinking of her beloved and the deep love she had for him.

“That’s why love is so important, Pascal. It keeps people together but also sets people free. It opens up a whole world of adventure, both out there,” she gestured with her chin at the world from her window, “and in here.” She tapped her chest right above where her heart was. “Having someone who would take you to the ends of the world, who would _go_ to the ends of the world for you makes every doubt and fear you may have about yourself feel so much smaller.” She sighed happily thinking of her beloved.

“He _died_ for me, Pascal. You were there. You must have felt how important that was.” She hoped her explanation of love was getting through to the chameleon. “There was an ache in me that I hadn’t known before. When I was in danger that whole time, you felt it, too, didn’t you? That’s all part of what love _is._ ” From Pascal’s contemplative expression she felt he was at least starting to get it.

Looking out at the landscape she realized if she drew a line from where she sat and along the path she was staring at it would lead directly to The Tower. Her brow lowered slightly at the thought, once again feeling her permanent connection to The Tower. “Before that, my only experience of love was from Mother.”

She sat in silence for a while, letting Pascal ponder the prospect of love while she kept staring past the forest at the gap between the mountains where she knew The Tower was hidden. She couldn’t _not_ think about it, just like she couldn’t _not_ think of ‘Gothel’ as ‘Mother Gothel’ even though she was anything but. Even where she was sitting, one of the environments that made her feel most comfortable, was a high and tight space. Just like The Tower.

“That wasn’t love. Mother… _Gothel_ was only using me.” She made a conscious effort to at least not _call_ her ‘Mother’ when she spoke. “Gothel didn’t love me, she just loved my hair. She loved her youth and my hair gave that to her. I wasn’t anything more than a tool, an object. Just a _thing_ she could _use._ ” She stopped for a moment as flashes of happy memories from her childhood were revealed to have been painful experiences. It was like learning adorable shadows were being cast by these wicked creatures she hadn’t noticed then but were oh so obvious now.

“Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine…” Rapunzel didn’t finish singing the incantation. She barely registered that she had started singing it. She just sighed.

“I didn’t know any better. I thought that was how things _were._ She gave me so much, all the books and paint and ingredients. She let me keep _you_ when we finally let her know I was keeping you. I thought all that _was_ love. But there’s a big difference between taking care of someone and caring for someone.” She looked down at the increasingly confused chameleon. “I’m sorry, Pascal. You were getting so close to getting it and then I threw all that at you.”

Avoiding looking back out the window knowing she’d just end up staring towards The Tower again, Rapunzel picked Pascal up and pushed off from the rafter. She caught a lock of hair on her way down and used the momentum to swing towards a pile of pillows, letting go and landing on them with a very satisfying ‘womph!’

Muffled laughter grew louder as she pulled a pillow off her face. “I told Cass this pillow pile would be a lot of fun.” Pascal crawled out from a gap between pillows and reclined on one like he was sunbathing. Rapunzel followed his very good idea, folding her arms behind her head and crossing her legs at the ankles.

“Eugene opened my eyes, he pulled me out from the darkness Mo—Gothel had made and introduced me to so many things.” Rapunzel’s eyes took in the grandeur of where she now lived. “He gave me my family.”

Pascal made a noise; she knew that the idea of finding your family was something he understood. “I don’t want to imagine what my life would be like if he hadn’t taken me from The Tower. I can’t imagine if it was anyone else.”

But even as she said she couldn’t, she did begin to imagine if someone else had come to rescue her, although there was only one other person she _could_ imagine.

“Hey, Pascal, do you think we’d be here right now if Cass had been the one who found me in The Tower?” She rolled out of her leisurely pose onto her side, resting her head on her hand and placed the other hand on her hip. “Like, if somehow Cass was, well, she wouldn’t be trying to steal the crown but, I don’t know. Maybe she fell down the hill and found the secret entrance to the glade. Then she’d see The Tower and, uhm, she’d come and get me out.”

Pascale sat up and looked down at the pillow he had been laying on. Rapunzel couldn’t tell what he was thinking and if she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, it was probably because _he_ didn’t know what he was thinking. Neither did she, really.

“Since I met her, Cass has been the perfect companion. She’s always been by my side, and I’m sure that even if she weren’t my lady-in-waiting she’d still be there to support me. If it had been her, I think I’d still have ended up here. My dad would have probably given her the keys to the kingdom if she had been the one to bring me back! She…” Rapunzel paused considering her next thought. “She’d still be by my side then, right? I mean, she wouldn’t be my lady-in-waiting then, she’d be…” it was getting harder for Rapunzel to consider this scenario. It had started happily, but the prospect of Cassandra not being with her was making her heart ache, and that was not something she wanted to contemplate.

What was she thinking?

“There has to be something she could do that would keep her by my side. I mean… uhm… Oh! I could make her my bodyguard! Like a knight in shining armor!” She almost shouted the solution. “Yeah, she’d love that, right? Personal Knight to The Princess!” She looked to Pascal as though he knew. To his credit he gave a squeak of agreement. He knew just as well as she did that Cassandra’s battle prowess made her an ideal knight.

Rapunzel’s mood took an abrupt downward turn. “Hmm. But if Cass took me from The Tower then I would never have met Eugene.” Now _that_ idea caused her heart to ache, just as much as the prospect of Cassandra not being with her. A flash of thought told her she should probably miss Eugene more than she’d miss Cassandra, but it was quickly snuffed out. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something there that put Eugene and Cassandra on equal footing.

 _What_ was she thinking?

“If I only had Cass in my life, and didn’t even know who Eugene was, my life would definitely not be the same.” Why was thinking about this so hard? Of course, she hated thinking about it, but she had an active enough imagination that she should be able to at least _conceive_ the notion of a life without Eugene. But she couldn't.

“Eugene is the love of my life. He’s kind, he’s funny, he’s _good._ ” Rapunzel said the last part as an objective trait. In her mind ‘goodness’ was as easily definable as ‘evil’, and Eugene was decisively _good._ “I love him for so much more than rescuing me from The Tower, but if he hadn’t done that and it was Cassandra…”

What _was_ she thinking?

She hit that mental roadblock again, but this time she could identify it. Cassandra was incredibly kind. Cassandra was funny when she wanted to be. Cassandra was certainly _good._ And she had to admit that even though Eugene was just so, _so,_ handsome, Cassandra’s face was familiar and comforting. Her face reminded her of coming home, for some reason. A face that would take care of her.

“I mean, this has got to be why I want to know what Cass would be like if she were in love, right?” Rapunzel didn’t even notice she had gone from _explaining_ why she cared so much about Cassandra’s love life to _asking_ why she cared so much about Cassandra’s love life. “Like, if I know how Cass acted when she’s in love, then… then we could be… we’d be closer. Closer friends, right?”

What was she _thinking?_

Pascal looked like he had enough talk about love. It was a concept literally unnatural to a chameleon. Chameleons didn’t form those kinds of relationships with other chameleons, and Rapunzel was regretting throwing her reptilian friend into the deep end of it all. She pushed herself up from the pillow pile and brushed herself off.

“I think we’ve had enough thinking. C’mon, Pascal. I don’t remember what we have to do today, but I’m guessing it’s only gonna get busier leading up to my parent’s anniversary trip.” She scooped Pascal up again. The lizard was less energetic now and curled up like he was mentally overheating from their discussion.

There was a knock at the door and before Rapunzel could welcome the knocker in, Cassandra came bursting through like a gust of blue wind. “Alright, Raps. Your morning off to do your little cleaning ritual was supposed to be done half an hour ago and you need to be—” Cassandra stopped as she took in the seventy feet of hair crisscrossing its way through Rapunzel’s room.

Rapunzel could see Cassandra’s eyes tracing her hair from her head to across the bed, up the wall to a rafter, looped around to another rafter, down that wall… Rapunzel gave the big innocent smile of someone who is not, in fact, innocent.

“What the heck, Raps! You’re nowhere near ready! And what are you wearing? Ugh, this is going to make us even later than we already are.” Rapunzel could just stand there with her not, in fact, innocent smile as her handmaiden grabbed a heap of her hair and began coiling it.

“C’mon, here, pull your hair down. We can still make it to breakfast with the grocers committee if we hurry. We’ll just tell them it's a brunch meeting instead. I’ll go get the right dress while you and Friedborg can braid your—” Cassandra turned to give the coil of hair to Rapunzel’s other handmaiden only to drop the coil into empty air. “Friedborg? Where’s Friedborg? Great. She always pops up behind you when you least expect it but when you _do_ expect her to be right behind you, she’s gone. I’m going to go get Friedborg, you just… you just start!”

All of that happened within the span of a minute, but it had felt like ten. Rapunzel stopped holding her breath and dropped her not, in fact, innocent smile.

She immediately climbed a waterfall of blonde hair to a rafter where she could easier unravel the web she had created. Even Pascal, jolted to attention by Cassandra’s commanding orders, was frantically scampering to Rapunzel’s vanity to arrange whatever bottles Cassandra made Rapunzel use whenever she had to be a statesperson.

For once Rapunzel was happy for Cassandra’s no-nonsense attitude. It meant Rapunzel had to focus on whatever task was at hand and she didn’t have time to… there wasn’t any room to… she couldn’t… hmm.

What was she thinking?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter was a lot less focused on Cassandra/Eugene and more about Rapunzel and her position in the story at large. The show didn't delve much into the Rapunzel's PTSD but there were clear signs it's really affected Rapunzel's life. 
> 
> Sorry if feels a bit heavy, but A) It's so integral to her character and B) It's a part of why she's an interesting and relatable three dimensional character.
> 
> Also, I enjoyed writing her burgeoning awareness of the spectrum of sexual orientation.
> 
> As always, I am fueled by your comments, kudos, and the like, so please let me know what you thought of the chapter, if I matched Rapunzel's voice, or whatever else you'd want to say!


	9. Finally, an Unenthusiastic Caretaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning the Stolen. Forgery Kits and Quills. The Desire for Sleep. Wheelchairs, and How to Drive Them. Beds, and Their Stuffing. Get Well Soon, Soldier. Return Favor Not Owed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Immediately After "Big Brothers of Corona"

Eugene thought about the formative years of his life.

He hoped the lives of Angry and Red would turn out differently. If he ever saw them again, he hoped they'd have changed for the better.

They had scampered off somewhere, but they had returned the things they stole. Most of it anyways. A few gold and silver pieces were missing; either they had taken it with them wherever they had gone or spent it in the time they were the Silent Striker.

This difference in stolen goods and what was returned was to be taken out of the nominal pay he supposedly got for his consulting job for the Royal Guards. This hadn't bothered Eugene much; he didn't even know he _had_ pay. Whenever he and Rapunzel would go out she always paid, or they got stuff for free, or… something. Whatever, she's the Princess.

But just to add punishment on top of punishment, the Captain had tasked Eugene with returning the bulk of the stolen goods the two troublemakers had stolen. 

_Without_ the help of Maximus. 

Eugene already knew how heavy a cart of money was, but he had a newfound understanding of what pulling such a weight did to his shoulders. 

And back. 

And legs. 

Boy, was he tired.

"That's every receipt, signed by the returnee and the returner. Which was me. Now can I have my forgery kit back and call it a day?" He was in the Captain's office and standing in front of his desk. Well, it wasn't so much an office as a part of the barracks slightly separate from the rest. But it had a desk and a Captain sitting behind it. So: office.

"Hrmm… what? No, you cannot have your forgery kit back! You shouldn't even _have_ this!" The Captain put the receipts he was reading down and picked the box up with both hands, holding it away from Eugene's reach.

"Oh, c'mon! It's a memento, it's not like I actually use the thing anymore. Besides, all my best quills are in there." Eugene could already tell he wasn't getting the box back, but there's never any harm in trying. Actually, there could be an awful _lot_ of harm in trying a bunch of things, but that's not as catchy.

"Don't be daft, Rider," the Captain always called him that when he was mad at him, "this is highly illegal. You're lucky I don't lock you up for just owning this thing." The Captain grumbled under his breath as he put the box down and opened it up. "But here. Take the quills."

"Aww, thanks Cap." Eugene said, taking the quills. Darn! He should have asked for the paper; these quills weren't special at all. The paper, on the other hand, could be made to mimic any stationary he might need. It didn't matter that he could just _ask_ for official Corona stationary now and didn't need to forge anything. He just liked to know he _could_.

"So, free to go?" Hah! Now that was a phrase Eugene was used to saying to lawmen.

"Yeah, yeah. Get out of here." Eugene was already at the door before the Captain called out to him again. "And Eugene? Good job."

With a genuine grin from the commendation, Eugene gave the Captain a sloppy salute and made his way back to the more 'royal' parts of the castle. He was never fond of being in these parts of the Castle, too many memories.

"I'm telling you, Pete. You got to try it with milk. Makes the whole thing taste so much better!"

"I dunno, I feel like it would just make the whole thing soggy, and I prefer eating them one at a time, ya'know?"

"I thought so, too at first, but my wife, she made me--"

"Will you two _shut up_?"

Eugene heard a loud 'thud!' as he rounded the corner, finding the frightened expressions of Stan & Pete. The two guards were very afraid of a door. Eugene couldn't blame them; it was a very scary door. It led into Cassandra's room.

"Hey guys! How's the guarding?" Eugene sidled up between the two and threw his arms around their shoulders. "How's about you two take a break and I take over for a bit?"

"Uhm, yeah… good idea. Let's go, Pete. We'll go to the kitchen and you can try bimberries and oats in milk. I promise you'll love it."

"Fine, I guess I'll give it a try." Their voices trailed off, leaving Eugene alone with the very scary door.

He gave it a knock.

"Hey Cass, mind if I come in?" He didn't wait for an answer before he opened the door and carefully crept inside. Good thing too cause there was a wheelchair knocked over from having been chucked at the door. "Oh, so this was the thud."

There was an exasperated groan slowly muffled as Cassandra pulled her pillow over her head. He heard a pillow-smothered "gofway" from the injured woman.

"Relax, I’m only here to visit. What's more, once I'm gone, I'll make sure no one bothers you until at least tomorrow." Eugene said. He set the wheelchair upright so he could sit in it, rolling over to the side of the bed. Carefully he plucked the pillow from over Cassandra's face. "I just wanna talk."

He had expected a vicious scowl, forehead so scrunched up it reached her nose and lips pursed into the thinnest, angriest line possible. Instead he found just tired, half lidded eyes that looked so done they could be a very disappointing steak. "Yeesh, that bad, huh?"

"I just want to sle-he-heep!" She didn't even look at him.

"Yeah, I can see that. But I wanted to thank you for the tip about that flower. Lance and I found the kids just before they got taken by the Baron's men, so you really saved them from a pretty terrible fate." He laid the pillow on Cassandra's chest. She grabbed it and very deliberately put it back behind her head.

“So… what’s with the leg?” Eugene’s voice had that slightly patronizing tone that parents give when they’re not quite sure their child has done something but suspect it out of principle.

“You said you weren’t going to make fun of it,” Cassandra groaned. Wow, she was so tired she didn’t even give her signature eye roll.

“I’m not! Promise.” Eugene held up his left hand and with his right purposefully made two intersecting diagonal lines on the right side of his chest. “Cross my heart.”

She tilted her head to look at him, pale eyes looking at his chest then to his exaggeratedly solemn face. “That’s the wrong side, moron,” she said, rolling her head back to stare at the ceiling. But she had a smug smirk on her face now. Eugene grinned ever so slightly, content to have lifted her mood, even if it was at his own expense.

“Really? Ah, I never pay attention to those sorts of things.” He leaned back in the wheelchair and was thrown off balance when it started to roll away from the bed.

“Whoa, now! These things are really uncomfortable. I can’t imagine wheeling around in this for too long.” Despite that, he was getting the hang of it now, turning left and right in a tight motion. Carefully, he was able to get to the open area at the foot of her bed so he could have more space to get the hang of this whole wheel chairing business.

“You can keep it if you want.” 

Eugene didn’t say anymore and let the room go silent but for the sound of wooden wheels on cobblestone. He made no attempt to break the silence or leave the room. If she wanted to talk, Eugene reasoned, she would say something. Otherwise, she could finally have some peace and quiet without a bickering guard duo outside her door. Well, quiet except for his wheelchair practice.

Finally, Cassandra spoke up of her own accord.

“I fell” was all she said.

After waiting to see if she’d elaborate, Eugene wheeled back to her bedside to where he had sat before. “Fell, huh? Must have been pretty high up to catch someone like you off guard. How’d you fall?”

Cassandra rolled onto her side away from Eugene. “… got caught…” she mumbled too softly for Eugene to hear.

“What was that?” he asked, legitimately curious.

“You said you’re not going to make fun of me!” She said, louder this time. She wasn’t shouting, at least, like she had at Stan & Pete.

“I’m not! I promise, remember? The heart crossing thing? I just didn’t hear you.” Eugene repeated his earlier profession of promise, only this time crossing the proper side of his body where his heart lay. She only briefly caught a glimpse of it as she rolled onto her back again.

“I got caught in a trap.” She said finally, pulling the pillow over her face again. Good thing, too, because Eugene’s raised eyebrows and open-mouthed grin of shock would certainly have infuriated her.

“How… I… what?” Despite what Cassandra would usually tell you, Eugene was a very well-spoken person. It was a necessary skill in his previous line of work. But the prospect of Cassandra, _the_ Cassandra, being caught in some kind of trap was more than this elegantly eloquent pilferer of people’s pockets could grasp.

She flipped the pillow from her face, sighing as she looked up at him. “Close your mouth Fitzherbert, it’s not that dramatic. Your girlfriend wanted to catch the Silent Striker and showed me this dumb trap. Turns out it wasn’t as dumb as I thought, and when I cut myself down, I landed wrong.” Eugene watched the strong, viperous woman give an expression halfway between foolish embarrassment and disappointed frustration. Now _that_ was funny.

Too late to maintain his composure Eugene found a well-deserved pillow striking him in the face, an always helpful aid for someone who is laughing but shouldn’t. The pillow hit him hard enough to cause the wheelchair to roll back a bit. 

“You said you weren’t going to make fun of me, jerk.” Cassandra said, pulling the blanket over her head and turning away from him again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I was just laughing, ok? I’m not gonna rub it in or anything.” He wheeled himself back to Cassandra’s bedside in one smooth motion and pulled a perfect stop right before bumping into the bedframe. He was getting good at this wheel chairing thing. “Here, takes this back. C’mon.” He delicately tapped the blanket lump a few times with the pillow. An arm snaked out of the blanket and grabbed the pillow, pulling it in like, well, like a snake.

“Blondie’s pretty smart, huh?” Eugene said to the lump. Eugene finally got out of the wheelchair, the high back hurting his lumbar. If one of these had a much smaller back, he could definitely find some fun in it. He moved to sit at the foot of the bed, now exposed due to all the covers being scrunched into a blanket egg.

“Ya’know, it wasn't that long ago she was that wide-eyed girl from the tower who didn’t even know what grass felt like, but I tend to forget: she spent almost all her time up there reading and reading and reading. She’s probably read more books than the two of us combined.” He leaned back onto his hands, looking up at the ceiling and not the lump next to him.

“There’ll be times when I think I’ll have to come up with some clever way to bail her out of trouble, but then she pulls some crazy idea out of nowhere and blows me away. Literally that one time with the fan. Remember the fan? Yeah, that’s not a thing anymore.” Eugene ran a hand through his hair, but only lightly. It was already perfect. “You should know, before she came up with that fan idea, she had a whole slew of inventions. Sure, pretty much all of them were already invented, but considering she came up with them all without knowing they existed, that’s pretty darn smart. I think I’ve still got her hey-hey.”

“Hey-hey?” a confused voice from inside the lump said. Eugene smiled, turning towards it now.

“Yeah, it’s her version of a yo-yo. String and spool. Worked really well, actually.” There was a bemused snort from within the blanket egg and a bit of shuffling. Seems it wasn't quite ready to hatch.

“There’s so much going on in her head, I really don’t know where to start. It’s like she’s thinking about how to help every _one_ with every _thing all_ the time. It can be exhausting keeping up with her! A lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, but hoo-boy.” Eugene made a swiping motion over his forehead although there was no sweat to swipe.

“Ugh, at least you get to be with her only when you _want_ to,” said a frizzle of black hair popping out of the blanket egg. It was hatching! “I’ve got to be with her whether I like it or not.” Cassandra straightened herself out, placing the pillow back where it belonged. Eugene shifted over at the foot of the bed to make room for the foot of the injured.

“She’s always so… excited.” Cassandra propped her pillow against the headboard and sat up to talk properly with Eugene. “Every little thing with her has to be this extravagant adventure, or a big friendly activity. It’s like she has no concept of what ‘rest’ is.”

Cassandra used both hands to pull the curly hair out of her face, slicking it back into the bob that always looked like it was struggling to get loose. Eugene realized how intently he was staring at her hair and returned to staring up at the ceiling. He still hadn’t had that frank discussion with himself about whether or not hair was his _thing_. There was just something really enticing about how Cassandra’s hair was just so… Tangled. He really ought to figure out if hair really was his _thing_ , although he was concerned he already knew the answer.

“It’s not that bad, is it? Half the stuff I took for granted I see in a whole new light now because of her.” Eugene gave an experimental bounce on the bed. “Like where I sleep. Before her, I thought a nice bed was a bunch of hay in a sack. Now I've learned beds can have _springs_ and pillows can be filled with _feathers_. It’s amazing.”

“Yeah, not sleeping in a barn is not ‘new’ for most people, Eugene.” Cassandra said, giving him a smile. He opened his mouth in exaggerated surprise, as if truly shocked by the news that people slept in _beds_. It was successful in getting a small huff of laughter out of the previously overtired woman. Cheering her up was like pulling teeth, but Eugene had pulled teeth before! Sometimes rich old folk had gold dentures. Always got to look at the teeth during a carriage heist.

“So, what’s the deal? What’s going on with excited Miss Sunshine that’s got you so upset?” He pointed upwards towards the general direction of Rapunzel’s room.

Cassandra swept her hands out. “All this, for starters. Sure, maybe breaking my leg was my own fault; I shouldn’t have underestimated her. But afterwards how far she’s gone to ‘take care of me’ is exhausting. I feel like I need time to relax from what she's doing to get me to relax!”

Eugene stroked his goatee, lips scrunched in concentration. “Yeah, I can see how that can be a bit much. But didn’t you two sort that out earlier? When I left you two yesterday, I thought you were going to have one of those talks you two are fond of.”

“We did, we did. She said she’d only offer her ‘help’ if I asked.”

“So, no problem-o, right? What went wrong?”

“I asked.” Cassandra rolled her eyes upwards, slumped in regret, and gave a very exasperated sigh.

“Ah. Right. That’s kinda on you, then, isn’t it?” Eugene gave that hesitant shrug you only give when you know you’re only technically right. “I mean, you knew what you were signing up for there.”

That only drew another sigh from Cassandra, who slid further down the headboard into a slouch. “Yeah, I know. But I looked at her and the way she so earnestly _wanted_ me to ask for her help… I dunno.” She wasn’t looking directly at him anymore, but Eugene recognized that look. Staring into the distance with that happy little smile? Eugene made that face all the time when thinking about Rapunzel.

“Oh, I know. She’s got this kind of,” Eugene made a vague gesture of trying to fluff an imaginary pillow, “air about her. Like you just wanna help her and at the same time feel like she’d do anything for you.”

“Right!?” Cassandra’s attention returned from wherever it had wandered off to and looked right at Eugene. “It’s so refreshing to meet someone who says exactly what they mean. I don’t have to figure her out. Growing up with my dad almost everything was some sort of secret test of how smart or skilled I was. And when I’m doing all my Lady-in-Waiting duties I’ve always got to be all proper and diplomatic.” Cassandra pushed herself up from her slouch into a sitting position again. “But when I’m with Raps it’s like I don’t have to pretend about anything. I can just be myself.”

“Tell me about it!” Eugene let his excitement craft a big smile on his face. “For me, even when I wasn’t hanging around a bunch of thugs or other thieves, people just aren’t that straightforward. And the ones who _are_ that straightforward are real jerks. But Sunshine? What you see is what you get. That kind of honesty is really something else.”

“ _She’s_ really something else.” Cassandra agreed. “It’s the way she accepts me for who I am. If she were the same bubbly, flowery, excitable princess but she _wasn’t_ ok with that side of me,” Cassandra bobbed her chin towards her wardrobe of armor pieces, weaponry knickknacks, and souvenirs of battle, “I don’t think I’d be able to stand her. But Raps thinks that stuff is pretty cool.” Pride shone on Cassandra’s face. While it was definitely scary, Eugene _also_ thought Cassandra’s war-drobe was pretty cool.

“When she gets super enthusiastic about the stuff you're into, it’s easy to forgive her when she gets a bit over enthusiastic about the stuff she's into, huh?” 

There was a moment where the two sat together just smiling over Rapunzel.

“Here,” Eugene broke the silence and stood from the bed. “I figure the two of us’ve got to deal with Sunshine’s enthusiasm more than anyone else, so we’d be the best people to understand when she’s going a bit overboard. Well, us two and the frog.” It’s important to always remember Pascal. “So, if we see the other getting hit by too much of Rapunzel’s ‘helpfulness’ we’ll step in for the other one. Sounds like a deal?”

For a moment, Cassandra pursed her lips and looked conflicted. He could practically read the suspicion in her eyes. Eugene thought she wouldn’t accept this olive branch he was extending, but then Cassandra gave a genuine chuckle and held out her hand. “You’ve got a deal, Fitzherbert.” He took her hand and they made a single, conspiratorial shake.

“It’s our pact then.” he laughed. “I’ll leave you alone now, and I’ll make sure everyone else does, too, so you can get some rest.”

“Thanks, Eugene” the warrior woman said, finally slumping back into an easy sleep. Eugene was turning the knob on the door when he realized what he had in his pocket.

“Oh, before I go,” he turned, pulling one of his ‘good quills’ out and holding it up prominently. “Can I sign your cast?”

Cassandra made a sound Eugene had never heard from her before and was afraid his question had caused some sort of vile reaction. Then he recognized the sound as a feminine and delicate giggle. He had no idea she could even make that kind of noise. “Sure.” she said, reaching to open her bedside table’s drawer for an inkwell.

He signed his name with all the gusto and flourish his reputation demanded of him just above her ankle. Rapunzel had written her name on a large portion of the cast and the name Pascal was underneath it in her handwriting but surrounded by distinctly chameleon footprints. To Eugene’s shock he saw the message ‘Get Well Soon, Soldier - Dad’ scrawled on the far side of the cast. He decided it best he not say anything about it.

“OK, _now_ you can get some rest, Cass,” he said as he made for the door. If she responded he didn’t hear because the moment he opened the door he heard the voices of Stan & Pete coming down the hall.

“I never knew!”

“I told you, didn’t I? Bimberries in milk, with a bit of oats in it? Fantastic!”

“You know what would have made it even better? Some honey.”

“Oh my gosh, Pete, that’s genius!”

“Gentlemen!” Eugene said, throwing his arms around their shoulders and turning them around. They were swept into his wake as anyone would when confronted by such charismatic confidence. “Good news! The Princess says you’ve done a great job and you can take the rest of the afternoon off. Now, you got to show me what Stan’s wife was saying about this bimberry soup thing.”

Eugene was already tuning out their conversation as he looked over his shoulder at Cassandra’s door, the very happy smile of a job well done on his face.

As far as he was concerned, she didn't even owe him one for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just two people talking about their girlfriend. I worry I didn't capture their voices very well this chapter. Did any parts feel uncharacteristic?
> 
> I'm really excited to get to Queen for a Day! Expect a few chapters long chapters taking place during and around the two-parter.
> 
> Anyways, as always, I am fueled by your comments, responses, and opinions so please let me know what you thought of this chapter!


	10. Getting the Day Off to Run From Your Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Respect for Veteran Ladies-in-Waiting. Families Do Things Their Own Way. Who You Envision in Your Daydreams. The Flight of Fearsome Feathered Friends. A Hunt Interrupted. Facial Revolutions. What They Prepared For.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A week before "The Way of the Willow"
> 
> Part 1 of 2

Cassandra didn’t normally have free time like this in her life.

“Are you sure?” She was asking, not quite sure if she’d understand the response. “I mean, if we split this load, we’ll be done with it by lunch and we can start on making the decorations for the Queen’s birthday coming up.” 

The woman standing before Cassandra, holding the massive pile of laundry in her hands like it weighed nothing, only blinked at her. It was a slow blink, where one eyelid seemed to move slightly faster than the other, so they were out of sync.

Friedborg was a unique person. She had come with the Queen when she had married King Fredrick, having served her family since she and the Queen were Cassandra and Rapunzel’s age. If the stories were true, Friedborg had been a huge party animal and motormouth. The Queen would begrudgingly speak of the way the Queen’s younger sister and Friedborg would go on wild adventures and party well into the night. It was hard to believe, sure, but if the stories about _Princess Wilhelmina_ were to be believed, then Friedborg being the way she was after years of partying was suddenly a lot more conceivable.

“Or I could clean the halls while you do the laundry and we can reconvene in the afternoon?” Cassandra offered. The blank-faced Lady-in-Waiting in desperate need of dental care simply turned slightly, holding an arm out to present the pristine hallway behind her. Sparkles glinted off the walls and floor, as would always happen in a situation like this. 

It was like how a cart's wheel would always roll out of a crashed wagon or a tumbleweed would always bounce across a desert landscape at the right moment. The universe just works like that.

“Well. In that case. I supposed I’ll go see if my father needs anything?” There didn’t seem to be any perceptible changes in Friedborg’s expression. There never was. But like how she could suddenly appear behind you even if you had your back against a wall, she was just as suddenly waving goodbye and the traces of a happy smile was on her face.

“Uh, yeah. See you later, too.” Cassandra said as she gave a proper curtsey to her fellow Lady-in-Waiting and made for the lower parts of the castle.

Say what you will about Friedborg, but she was _very_ good at her job. 

For starters, Cassandra noticed the basket of laundry she was carrying towered over the two of them and yet Friedborg held the basket steady with _one hand_. And she was certain the two woke up at around the same time, and yet Cassandra would always find that Friedborg had finished something before they met with the rest of the staff for breakfast, like the clean hallways just now.

Cassandra held great respect for the elder handmaiden; without her, she could not spend as much time with Rapunzel as she did. She may be difficult to read, or hear, and often difficult to look at, but without her the castle duties would be much harder.

Cassandra intended to head to her room first to change out of her handmaiden uniform and into something a little more Royal Guard-like. If she was going to have such free time, she could put it to use doing something to prove herself worthy of joining the Royal Guards. The position of Captain of the Royal Guards was obviously not a hereditary one, but nonetheless, Cassandra hoped to inherit the title one day. The role needed to be earned through combat talent and strategic skill--both of which Cassandra had in spades. She definitely had more talent and skill than anyone else in the guards right now. Any _human_ , that is. Maximus was faster, stronger, and all around deadlier than she was, but he’s a _horse_.

“Dad!” Cassandra called out before she made it to her room. She had only made it to the barracks entrance from the castle when she saw her father and his men. Well, she heard them well before she saw them: boots marching in step and the clanging of metal reverberating down the stone walls.

“Oh, Cassandra! Shouldn’t you be upstairs with your Lady-in-Waiting duties?” The Captain made a gesture for the line to keep marching forward and into the yard without him while he stopped to talk with his daughter.

“The workload is surprisingly light today,” Cassandra made a little grin at her own pun on Friedborg’s lifting strength, “so I thought I could do something with you today.” She looked up at him to see a fatherly smile on his face. In other circumstances, she’d have appreciated it. But right now, that wasn’t what she was going for.

“I mean, I want to report for duty, sir!” She straightened her back, stomped her foot down and pulled a crisp salute. Her blue dress flapped about as she did so, and her military stomp had no oomph behind it considering she was wearing the soft soled shoes of the castle staff. Behind the Captain a few of the marching guards made faces of adoration at ‘the Captain’s adorable daughter’ before they met her gaze. Cassandra knew how to scare any guard back into line with just a look.

“Oh, I see.” the Captain said, stroking his chin and peering back at the end of the marching line making its way to the yard. “I’m afraid this isn’t a project I can have you with me on.” He wasn’t making the reproachful face he normally had when he turned her down. It seemed more like a concern.

“Whatever mission you and your men are embarking on I’m sure I would be a great asset, sir!” She was holding her salute and had her sightline locked at a spot an inch above and slightly to the left of the Captain’s face, just like a proper soldier should.

“Cassandra… first of all, at-ease, soldier.” Cassandra complied, but only to the military standard legs shoulder width apart and arms folded behind her back stance. Not that you could tell where her legs were with the flowy dress on. She had really hoped to change before this sort of conversation!

“I mean it, Cassandra. This assignment… it’s…” he seemed to not be sure of himself. This combined with his earlier concerned demeanor put Cassandra on guard, ironically making her step out of her role _as_ a guard and into her other important role of a daughter.

“Dad? Is everything ok?” She tilted her head, still in military at-ease, but without the focused face required.

“Uh, it’s just… going to be a boring assignment. Yeah… you know how the King has been ordering those tunnel maintenance training exercises? That’s what it is. Nothing important, and, uh, I wish I wasn’t going myself. Boy, if I could send Pete or Stan to oversee this instead, I’d be happy to stay here. But, uh, the importance of trench digging, and proper tunnel maintenance needs to be overseen by someone who knows what they’re doing.” Her father’s voice was rising back from his fatherly disposition to a more Captain-y one and Cassandra relaxed herself entirely from the military at-ease.

“Dad, I appreciate the sentiment, but I really don’t need the sugar-coating. I liked it better when you would just tell me no.” She crossed her arms in front of her this time, giving her father an affectionate smile. “Did Rapunzel tell you to ‘let me down lightly’ when you say no again? I keep telling her, our family just does things a different way.” To emphasize that Cassandra gave her father a playful punch on the arm, which for them was pretty strong when compared to other ‘playful punches’.

“Hah-ha! Yes, it was just that. Rapunzel telling me to be softer with you. I’d say no, but she _is_ the Princess. You know how it is.” Her father’s genuine laughter was something few people had the privilege to hear, and Cassandra was both proud and flattered that she was one of those few people.

“The King has been ordering more and more of those exercises lately, though. Are the tunnels really getting that bad out there?” The tunnels of Herz Der Sonne ran through much of the kingdom, so if they started to collapse Cassandra could easily envision the damage.

“Yeah. It’s getting bad.” The Captain looked out towards the yard where Cassandra could see the men were loading carts with wood and shovels. That must have been the extra clanging she heard earlier. “It’s expanding through Old Corona now,” he mumbled.

“The tunnels go all the way out there?” Cassandra didn’t know the full extent of the tunnels; she never had any interest in studying them fully.

“Oh, right. Yes, the tunnels. They reach all over the kingdom. _That’s_ why we’ve been going to Old Corona more often, if we don’t then the tunnels won’t reach there anymore.” The Captain put his hand on Cassandra’s shoulder, giving it a light tap.

“If you’ve got some time off, I don’t think you’d want to spend it doing manual labor,” he said. Then he stood and returned to his professional disposition. With a crisp salute and the voice of a man who is used to shouting orders he barked “dismissed soldier!”

Cassandra returned to military attention, giving another stomp and a salute just as crisp as he had taught her. “Yessir!” The two relaxed and exchanged a familial smile.

She waved warmly as her father jogged to catch up with his men and began shouting orders. “What in blazes are you all standing around for!? If that cart’s well and loaded, then you ought to be marching already! You already know where we’re going, do you need me to hold your hand!?”

She watched them go for a bit from the exit ramp to the yard, admiring the precision of their formation. _That’s_ the kind of respect she wanted to command one day. A whole contingent of soldiers trusting her orders? She was as ready as she’d ever be for that.

When they turned the bend to the main road, Cassandra stopped watching and went back to her room.

"Now what?" She said to herself as she closed the door behind her and tossed her bonnet onto the bed. She shook out her hair, slicking it back as best she could. It always wanted to curl and break loose, though.

She began to change into her casual attire. Red shirt, beige tunic on top, weathered pants, and a solid pair of boots. Throw in a few daggers, a few more daggers, a knife or two, and her trusty sword and she was ready to go.

"The dresses are nice, but it feels good to be back in more sensible leather," she smiled to herself in the mirror. She examined herself for any last-minute adjustments when she considered what she was actually planning on doing.

Normally at a time like this she'd go protect Rapunzel. At least, that's what she was officially doing. She knew well enough that she just enjoyed hanging out with the Princess, despite having once thought that princesses and Ladies-in-Waiting did not become friends.

But today she was on a picnic date with Eugene. She hadn't given it much thought. After all, Cassandra had expected to be working all day today. She briefly considered accompanying them anyways, if only to purposefully be a third wheel. She could annoy Eugene out of romance time with Rapunzel. But that would also annoy Rapunzel out of romance time with Eugene.

"Romance…" Cassandra sat on the bed with a satisfying wumph and sighed. "A picnic would actually be kinda nice."

She could envision it: a checkered blanket and a basket of cheeses and smoked meats. A bottle of wine and two glasses. A beautiful vista of nature stretching out before her and sitting next to her was…

Cassandra stood up and ruffled her hair with both hands. "No, no, no. That's ridiculous. Why would _he_ be my first instinct? Someone else. Come up with someone else." She pointed at the her in the mirror as if she could order her reflection like her father ordered his men.

A second person came to mind and her eyes went wide. "That's…" Cassandra turned from the mirror and held her elbows in embarrassment. "That's not… I'd be sent to a convent." For a moment she just stood there, considering the idea. The moment dragged as she considered it more and more. The idea, it just wasn’t… allowed? Was that how to think of it? Trying to snap out of it she turned back to the mirror. The woman staring back at her was practically begging her to think of something else. 

But no matter how much she looked at herself, she could imagine only two faces sitting with her on that checkered blanket. Eventually she was imagining them both.

"You need to clear your head." She told the her in the mirror, pressing down the thoughts and feelings she had just gone through just like she had always done. She marched out of her door, not quite slamming it shut behind her.

After a short moment the door opened a crack and only Cassandra's hand reached out, grabbing her bow off the wall. The door did slam shut this time.

She fiddled with the tensile strength of the bow all the way out of the barracks and towards the Corona bridge. She thought it best to use the same side roads her father and his men had just used so she didn't have to walk through the town square. She knew almost everyone who would be around the town square at this time and they all knew her. More annoyingly, they’d all likely _greet_ her and _ask her how she was doing_. Neither one of which she wanted to think of right now. She didn’t quite want to think.

When she reached the bridge gate she stopped and looked up. Even for a place like Corona, it was odd to see a grown woman sniffing the air with her eyes closed. There hadn’t been werewolves in these parts for quite some time. But after finding whatever she was sniffing for, Cassandra faced a particular direction and gave a loud whistle. Then she waited.

An owl was soon circling overhead, decreasing altitude until it landed on Cassandra's outstretched arm, talons gripping tightly on its new perch. Her padded tunic was perfect for moments like this. "Welcome back, buddy."

Cassandra was proud of her friendship with this bird of prey. He wasn't exactly _hers_ , but they had a mutual respect and he would always come if she needed him. It had the simple name of 'Owl', but they also had a simple relationship. She helped him, he helped her, occasionally he’d come around for entertainment or snacks, but the rest of the time the two lived their separate lives. For Cassandra, this was the perfect kind of relationship. 

The reunion between them wasn't long. Cassandra waited for her sometimes-comrade to notice the bow and quiver she had equipped before giving him a nod. Then she threw her arm out to give Owl extra momentum in his return to flight, and sprinted after him.

Crossing the bridge was the easy part, she stayed on the path and weaved between the carts and people crossing and only _occasionally_ caused a surprised pedestrian to yelp or a hat to spin. Past that was the road, but Owl only followed it for a short while before diverting into the woods. Not a step out of sync, Cassandra followed the bird into the forest.

Running through the field and woods like this, keeping track of where Owl was flying, managing her breathing and stride, all of it helped clear her head. 

She had already forgotten about romance.

And the picnic. 

And the faces she imagined sitting with her.

 _Crap_.

Now she'd have to run harder.

Eventually Owl slowed down, and she did, too. She was only out of breath because she had pushed herself at the end there to forget about Rapunzel and Eugene's date. An explanation that made her feel the need to run again.

Owl looked down on her from a tree branch, tilting his head like owls do. Cassandra just waved a hand at him to indicate she was fine, and he didn't need to worry about her exertion. Whether Owl had really shown concern or was just tilting his head like owls do didn't matter.

Instead, Owl turned his gaze towards deeper in the brush. Cassandra followed his line of sight as she unslung her bow and notched a hunting arrow into it. She crouched and began silently stalking in that direction. Owl didn't move, but kept sights locked in the direction for Cassandra to follow.

Cassandra didn’t shuffle too far, maybe a little more than the length of her room, but it took several minutes to cross. She was moving almost imperceptibly slowly, managing to not snap any twigs underfoot or rustle any branches. She had no intention of living out the presence announcing cliché of carelessly making a sound. Eventually, she saw what Owl had been directing her towards.

There was a badger hunched over and nibbling away at what looked like a wild turnip.

It was completely oblivious of its surroundings.

Winter was only a few weeks away for Corona, and even though the winters were typically rather mild and didn’t bring much snow, some animals still needed to hibernate. It seemed this badger felt it needed to pack on a few more pounds of winter weight. Cassandra felt it was plump enough to make a good stew, instead.

"Sorry, little guy," Cassandra whispered to herself as she lined up her shot. Just as she let her fingers go, Owl came swooping in just above her hooting loudly. 

Cassandra's shot went wide and struck a large tree root two or three feet behind the badger. Frightened by the Owl and sudden projectile, the badger scampered off and disappeared into the brushes.

"Oh, c'mon! What the heck?" Cassandra shouted at Owl, who had taken perch above the angry huntress. She stood and made to retrieve the missed shot.

"Cass?" Came a delicate voice from behind her. Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull as she turned to look up at Owl. Wait, as far as Cassandra knew Owl was male and that voice was distinctly female. Also, as far as Cassandra knew Owl couldn't speak.

"What are you doing out here?" The voice said again. This time its speaker pushed out of the bush beneath Owl and into view.

"Rapunzel?" This made more sense than Owl suddenly developing the ability to speak. She plucked the arrow out of the root and held it up to display. "I was just doing some hunting. _Trying_ to do some hunting," she said, glaring daggers at Owl. The princess followed her line of sight to the bird of prey looking down at her.

“Hoo.” In some way, Owl had managed to include the period in his cry.

"Oh! And hello to you, Owl!" Rapunzel said with excited politeness. It sounded like she was greeting a friend after a long time.

Owl leapt from his perch to plop himself on Rapunzel's shoulder. Somehow, he was being so delicate his talons didn't even tear at the blonde woman's clothes, much less hurt her in any way. It was either that or Rapunzel was an expert at hiding extreme pain.

"I thought you were having a picnic with Fitzherbert," Cassandra said, placing her arrow back in her quiver and slinging her bow again.

Right. Picnic. Date. _Romance_.

"Hey! Blondie, where'd you run off to? You can’t just go following every noise you hear in the woods, that’s how you get yourself eaten!" Came a new voice, followed by a squeak. Eugene burst from the brush holding Pascal in one hand like a waiter holding a tray. At the sight of Owl, the chameleon yelped and hopped onto Eugene's head. "What the, hey! And where do you think _you_ are going, frog?"

Cassandra took this opportunity to indicate to Owl he ought to take off. With another business-like hoot that seemed to include punctuation, the owl leapt off Rapunzel's shoulder and flew away. The princess waved him off while the handmaiden gave a stern nod. Cassandra knew which one Owl preferred.

"Here, 'shoulder' is ok, but 'hair' is not, got it? Good, there you go. Hey, was that an owl just now?" Pascal was finally on Eugene’s shoulder but had left his hair in quite the mess.

"That's a nice look, Fitzherbert. You ought to keep it that way." Cassandra purposefully ignored his question, deciding to goad the rogue instead. Just hearing his voice right now upset her.

"Oh, not an owl then. Still a vicious bird, though." Eugene was restyling his hair back into place with annoying ease. Darn it, no matter what ruffled his hair it _always_ went back to being gorgeous. It bothered her, not the least of which because her own hair never behaved like that.

Speaking of hair, Rapunzel stepped in before they could start bickering. "Cass, I thought you were working all day today. Why’d you come out hunting?” The energetic way Rapunzel practically glided over to her over the uneven forest floor was dazzling; that her energy was likely caused by the date she was in the middle of was discouraging.

Still, Cassandra’s mood was lightened when the princess took her by the arm and guided her towards the direction the two lovebirds had come. 

“I… needed a break.” This was technically not a lie, but in not being a lie it reminded Cassandra of the truth, which only made the break even more of a failure.

“Huh, and here I thought Varian told me machines don’t _need_ breaks.” Eugene said, holding branches out of the way for the two ladies. In retaliation, Cassandra lifted a loose branch out of his reach and let it swing back into his face.

Rapunzel looked like she was about to scold either of them for their antics when she noticed the mouth full of leaves that both Eugene _and_ Pascal had. The rogue and the chameleon made identical baffled expressions from their arboreal assault to the face. Seeing this, instead of scolding, Rapunzel began laughing.

And when Rapunzel laughs, the _way_ she laughs, the world seems like a happier place. And so, Cassandra laughed, too. The ex-thief and the color-changing lizard looked at each other, seeing their new foliage-based makeovers and joined the two in their laughter.

What was it about this woman, this _girl_ , that made every day so enjoyable? When they had first met, she had been so… pushy. Always doing things her own way and never following what she was told. She was a princess; princesses are defined to a ‘T’. There wasn't supposed to be space for her to be so… so… free. And that was it, wasn’t it? When Cassandra was with Rapunzel, _she_ got to feel so free.

The four of them finally exited the woods onto a grassy hillside. Cassandra could see in the distance Maximus and Fidela grazing and for a moment wondered if Maximus was trying to turn this into a date as well. It was actually rather entraining to watch Maximus's attempts to get into Fidela’s good graces: for a horse that was the pride of the Royal Guard, seeing him flustered and awkwardly was a refreshing change of pace.

Still guided by Rapunzel, Cassandra noticed the picnic date they had set up. There it was: a checkered blanket with a basket of half-eaten cheeses and smoked meats. There was the bottle of wine with two glasses, one significantly fuller than the other. And stretching out in front of her was the beautiful vista…

Rapunzel disengaged herself from Cassandra’s arm. “C’mon Cass. If you’re on a break, then you can take some time to join us.” Rapunzel hopped onto the blanket and patted a spot next to her. Eugene shuffled over and crouched into that typical relaxed position that always felt appropriate when sitting on a hillside: laying down on one side, one leg out with the other bent.

He reached into the basket and pulled out a wine glass. “You heard her, that’s an official order from the Princess of Corona. Better follow her commands and sit your butt down.” Eugene waved the glass at her teasingly causing Rapunzel to giggle.

“It’s not like _that_ ,” she said as she fed Eugene a cheese cube. Well, she wasn’t so much ‘feeding’ him as she was ‘mashing a cube of cheese into the mouth region of his face to shut him up’. The cuteness was forcing Cassandra’s cheeks to rise in open rebellion to her usual disposition.

“You can join us if you _want_ to,” Rapunzel said with an exaggerated royal emphasis, “but if you have other matters to attend, then We would not want to detain you.” The way the princess used the 'royal we' sounded like a parody of what a princess ought to sound like. This sparked the fires of revolution on her face and she realized she was sporting a stupid grin.

“Oh, no, your Highness, I have nothing more important right now than take in this beautiful view and enjoy this wonderful charcuterie with you.” She made her own attempt at the mock 'royal voice' as she unslung her bow and quiver. It felt calming to take up the open third of the picnic blanket.

“Sorry, but we don’t have any of that ‘char gooder’ stuff, but these cheese and meats are _delicious_!” Eugene said, handing Cassandra a glass of wine.

“That’s what charcuterie _is_ , Eugene.” Rapunzel said. Cassandra would have usually engaged in some witty banter or made a snarky comment about Eugene’s uncultured nature, but at this moment all she could do was stare at what she held delicately in both hands. Such a small and simple thing was almost bringing Cassandra to tears.

They had prepared a third glass for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you guys enjoy reading this one because I really enjoyed writing it. Cassandra's theme has always been 'wait' and I had to consider what exactly goes into waiting for so long and so often. Usually that involves taking something you want and holding it, suppressing it, repressing it if you must. Sometimes to the point you forget how much it means to you.
> 
> Ironically when I started this chapter I had intended to write a Happy Cassandra story. I felt like I had been writing too much Angsty Cassandra and she deserved a chapter where she was the focus but her feelings weren't being stretched thin. This began with 'what would make Cassandra happy' which led to 'when could she do this' which led to 'why would she have time off' and from there the story as it is fell into place. I still plan to write a Happy Cassandra story at some point, but this couldn't be it.
> 
> As always, I live off your feedback like a literary review vampire, so please tell me what you thought of this chapter. And don't feel pressured to say only good things! Criticism is just as delicious and nourishing for my vampiric palate as praise. And if you _did_ enjoy it, drop a kudos and slap a bookmark onto this story. I'm gonna do all of Season One in this collection.


	11. Taking the Day Off to Drink Your Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catching Food With Your Teeth. Chasing Horses. The Handmaiden’s Head and Wine. Do Not Drink and Ride. Holding for Balance. The Undisputed Master. No Harm in Liking It, Too. Not Having a Stick Attitude. Always Welcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A week before "The Way of the Willow"
> 
> Part 2 of 2

Cassandra didn't drink much wine in her life.

Her usual preference in alcoholic beverages were ales, lagers, and occasionally even meads, although she didn't like meads much due to their sweetness. It was just that wine didn't quite agree with her, usually going straight to her head. But when presented with a good wine, especially a wine from the Royal Wine Cellars, she was certainly not going to say no.

What made the wine even better was the accompaniment. Sure, cheeses and smoked meats are a great partner to any wine, but she wasn't thinking about that.

No, Cassandra was enjoying the companionship of the blonde-haired Princess delicately picking a piece of smoked lamb off the head of a very unhappy chameleon. She had tried, and failed, to toss it up and catch it in her mouth and the failure was giving Cassandra a giggle fit. Pascal’s disgusted face for a foodstuff outside his dietary range only made it funnier.

After running into each other in the woods the Princess and her boyfriend had invited her to join their picnic date. It turned out Rapunzel had insisted they pack an extra glass and another serving of drink and snacks in case Cassandra was available to join them. Even after she learned Cassandra was to have a full schedule, the couple had kept the extra provisions packed.

"No, no, no Raps. You got to do it like this, watch." Cassandra said, tossing a cube of smoked gouda into the air and, after shifting her neck a bit, caught it between her teeth.

"Tadah!" She said, still holding the cheese between her teeth. She chomped it in half, only barely catching the half on the outside of her teeth with her hand. In response to the tiny clapping and squeaked cheer from Pascal, Cassandra popped the cheese half into her mouth and gave a miniature showman’s bow.

"That's not fair! Cheese flies better than lamb." Rapunzel retorted, clearly jealous of Pascal’s praise. The three laughed as Cassandra and Rapunzel began to discuss the aerodynamics of charcuterie.

Further down the hill, Eugene was chasing after Maximus. Fidela was obediently waiting at the bottom of the hill, but Maximus seemed to enjoy forcing the dashing rogue to dash around. Cassandra found the horse giving the thief his comeuppance hilarious and tapped Rapunzel's arm to draw her attention to her boyfriend being made a _ fool _ .

"Go, Eugene, Go!" Shouted Rapunzel, cupping her mouth with the hand not holding a wine glass to amplify her voice. "You've almost got him!"

"Put some back into it, Max! This time  _ you're _ outrunning  _ him _ !" Cassandra shouted before downing the last of her wine in a single swig. Unfortunately, the wine had run out and Rapunzel had decided that was a clear indicator to head back to the castle.

Next to her Rapunzel scoffed. "Cass, whose side are you on?" She was slowly sipping from a still mostly full glass.

"The side that will give  _ you _ more time to finish drinking" Cassandra teased. "Is that still your first glass?"

"I topped it off once." Rapunzel said bashfully, popping a final cheese cube into her mouth.

"Hah! That still counts as your first glass, then!" Cassandra held up a single accusatory finger. "I thought you'd be better than that. Wait a second, are you even  _ allowed _ to drink? I'm pretty sure you're not old enough."

"I'm the Princess! Of course, I can drink.  _ You've _ even been the one to  _ serve  _ me wine before at banquets!" Rapunzel met the accusatory finger by holding the wine glass up in the delicate way she had been taught in her etiquette lessons. Cassandra didn't notice she'd not answered the question regarding the drinking age.

Instead, the handmaiden stole the glass daintily held by the Princess and dutifully tilted its contents into her mouth. There was a glass more than half full of wine, then there was a glass devoid of any at all.

Rapunzel barely had time to register her stolen beverage before the wine disappeared and only got out a shocked "Hey!"

"There you go. All gone. It's my job to help the Princess after all." Cassandra felt the warm feeling of a job well done fill her chest. It was either that or the wine and she hadn't had  _ that _ much wine; just three glasses. Three and a half if you include Rapunzel's mostly full, topped off glass. That counts as half, right? Whatever.

"Ho-kay, Cass. I think you've had enough," Rapunzel giggled. She took the empty glass that was once hers from Cassandra and placed it in the basket with the other two while Pascal tossed any scattered crumbs back onto the cheese board.

"Well of course I've had enough. There's no more to have!" Cassandra leaned forward and reached for the basket as Rapunzel was putting the charcuterie board away. Cassandra barely succeeded in grabbing a final sausage before Pascal knocked the basket lid closed.

"Someone looks like they’re having a good time," Came the voice of Eugene, the reigns of Maximus and Fidela in one hand. He was breathing heavily like he had just been chasing a horse.

"Eugene!" Cassandra said cheerfully while still chewing the sausage. Eugene made a funny face, but Cassandra ignored it. "You finally caught Max! Good job! Max. I mean good job to Max. For running so fast." She sat up with the soles of her feet touching each other, hands holding the toes of her boots.

She smiled up at Maximus, Fidela, and Eugene. 

Maximus, Fidela, and Eugene didn’t smile back. 

Instead, they stared at her with the same eyebrow raised. Not the  _ same _ , same eyebrow of course. They each had their own. But they were just all making the same expression. "Wow, Blondie. What did she do, drink the second bottle all by herself?" 

"Hah!" Cassandra barked, the singular laugh turning into a chuckle.

Rapunzel opened the basket to reveal two empty bottles of wine to Eugene before closing it again. Her eyebrows were raised as though they were saying ‘tadah!’.

"Wow, never thought I'd see a drunk Cassandra." Eugene squatted to eye level with the sitting woman, looking her over and stroking his goatee like a researcher discovering a new species. "I thought you'd definitely be able to hold your liquor a  _ lot _ better than this!"

"Whatever. I'll have you know I can handle my ale better than anyone. Definitely more than you, Fitzherbert. I could drink you under the table!" Cassandra said indignantly as she stood up. Well, didn’t quite ‘stand up’ as she did ‘unfold’ into an upright position. Admittedly, this was still an impressive amount of coordination for such an inebriated person.

"It's just that I’m not so great with wine. But I’m fine, totally fine." She had her hands on her hips, spread her legs shoulder width apart, and tilted her chin up and to the side in what she thought was a very heroic stance. That she had her eyes closed only detracted from the heroism a little.

"Uh, yeah… I can see that.” Eugene said. He may have been mocking her and Cassandra figured it would be easier to assume he was. She could sense him walking over to her and felt him hesitantly place both hands on her shoulders. She didn’t bother to open her eyes as Eugene began guiding her over to Fidela. “C’mon then, let’s get you on a horse.”

“I know how to ride a horse, Eugene.” Cassandra said, shaking her shoulders free from the man’s helpful grip. She made an attempt to hook her foot into the stirrup, missing it on her first try but catching it on her second. Using it as leverage she swung herself up onto Fidela’s back with a surprising amount of grace for an intoxicated individual. She threw both hands out to her sides like she had accomplished an impressive feat of dexterity and skill.

“Nuhuh, nope. No way is she riding a horse on her own.” Rapunzel said from Maximus’s side, strapping the picnic basket securely onto the horse’s saddlebag. She had already hung Cassandra’s bow and quiver the other side with the picnic blanket.

“Relax, Raps! I’ll be fine.” Cassandra said, contorting her body to look behind her at the Princess.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine! She just said she knows how to ride a horse. Besides, it’ll be fun to see her riding like this.” Eugene wasn’t even trying to hide how much he found this whole situation entertaining. “And worse comes to worst, Fidela will make sure nothing  _ too _ bad happens to her, ain’t that right, girl?” Eugene stroked Fidela’s muzzle and gave the mare a smirk. Cassandra felt her saddle rise slightly in what must have been Fidela responding with a shrug. The horses of Corona can just do that.

“While that  _ may be _ ,” Rapunzel began, walking over to Fidela’s side, “There’s still two horses and three of us, so someone’s going to have to share a saddle anyways.” The Princess hooked her foot into the stirrup and awkwardly pushed Cassandra back. She lowered herself into the front portion of the saddle so she would be in control of the ride home. “So, you’re riding with me and I’m taking the reins.”

“Whatever you say, your Highness.” Cassandra relented. 

It wasn’t often Cassandra and Rapunzel shared the same horse. When they did it was usually Cassandra at the reins, and more than likely some sort of urgency involved. Being the rider behind Rapunzel in a casual trot home was a very pleasant change of pace.

With Rapunzel now sitting in front of her, though, Cassandra had to contend with the massive braid of indestructible blonde hair in her lap. She shifted the weight over to the side and Rapunzel flicked her head to help.

“Oh, sorry about that, Cass. Eugene’s pretty used to dealing with my hair when we ride together.” For some reason the idea of Eugene getting to ride with Rapunzel like this so often frustrated Cassandra. It just didn’t seem  _ fair _ . Not quite sure where she was going with that thought, Cassandra instead began batting the braid of hair so it swung gently with each hit.

Maximus trotted up beside them with Eugene on his back as they began their return journey to the castle. “Ohoho, I am loving this,” Eugene said with a big, punchable grin on his face. “Remind me that the next time I wanna make Cass a whole lot more manageable I just got to get her to chug a whole bottle of wine--ow!”

Cassandra had reached out and struck Eugene on the shoulder. “I’m not deaf, Fitzherbert.” Cassandra tried to strike him on the shoulder again, but it was much easier to avoid her swings now that Eugene knew they were coming.

“Whoa-ho-ho! And next time I wanna make a fight with Cass a whole lot more fair.” Cassandra kept trying to hit Eugene in retaliation but for some reason he was moving a lot faster today. Eventually Cassandra gave up and, rolling her eyes, leaned forward against Rapunzel’s back in defeat.

“Hey,” Rapunzel chimed as she felt Cassandra put her weight on her. Pascal hopped from Rapunzel’s shoulder onto the top of her head, looking down at Cassandra. His mouth went ‘squeak’, but his eyes went ‘aww’.

“Oh, shut it.” Cassandra said, swiping at Pascal. The chameleon leapt over Cassandra’s hand every time she tried to grab him off Rapunzel’s head. Even  _ Pascal _ was moving faster than usual today! Why was that?

“Hey!” Rapunzel chimed again, this time more enthusiastically. She reached up and easily caught Pascal, holding him in front of her face. “Don’t you go picking on Cass, too, Pascal.” She gave the lizard a look of disappointment and the lizard responded bashfully. 

Cassandra grinned happily over Rapunzel’s shoulder at the Princess standing up for her. Sitting up for her. They were in a saddle after all.

“Here, Eugene, Pascal’s gonna ride with you for a little while.” Rapunzel held her hand out as a platform for Pascal to nimbly hop onto Eugene’s outstretched hand, run up Eugene’s arm, and then hop onto Maximus’s head right between the ears.

“I thought you were doing a great job, little buddy.” Eugene commended Pascal. The two shared a teasing smirk. Cassandra would have thought Eugene was being a bad influence on Pascal, but she already knew the kindhearted lizard had a mischievous side to him. The amount of times he’d tried to spook her by hopping out of camouflage while she was cleaning made that clear.

“Ugh, Raps, I just don’t understand what you see in those two bozos.” Cassandra placed her head on Rapunzel’s shoulder and wrapped her hands around her waist. Obviously, Cassandra didn’t need to do this for her balance, she was  _ Cassandra _ , daughter of the Captain of the Guard and Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess. She never lost her balance. It was just better to be safe than sorry.

This was… nice. It was a well-known fact that Cassandra did things on her own. She had made sure it was well known. But it felt good leaning on someone for once, literally in this case. Rapunzel was always offering herself to support Cassandra, but it had always felt like an admittance of defeat to take her up on it. But right now, holding the Princess like this, it definitely didn’t feel like a loss.

“Pascal is not a bozo, Cass.” Rapunzel said to the head leaning on her shoulder.

“Blondie?!” came Eugene’s insulted reply. Rapunzel stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend, and he responded with his own sour face.

Hah! Take  _ that  _ Fitzherbert. Had she said that out loud? She wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter.

Instead she just looked up at the Princess’s face. Leaning on her shoulder like this meant Rapunzel’s face was so close to her own. Cassandra never really looked at Rapunzel this closely. She’d helped teach her how to put on makeup when she had first arrived at the castle, sure, but that wasn’t like this. That was business. 

Out here, riding on horseback through the forest, just the two of them together, it felt… strange. 

But in a good way. A good strange.

“So, we split a bottle of wine, and she had one all to herself?” Oh. Right.  _ He _ was here, too. He must have dug into the saddlebag at some point because Eugene was chewing away at a sausage as he spoke.

“I didn’t drink a whole bottle; I just had my share.” Cassandra turned her head so the opposite cheek was resting on Rapunzel’s shoulder and she could look at Eugene instead.

“And mine.” Rapunzel reached up and pat Cassandra on the head. This brought a smile to Cassandra’s face and she tried to direct it at Eugene. It was an attempt to rub in his face that she was being petted by Rapunzel like this, and not  _ him _ . But when they made eye contact, he just smiled back. It was a warm smile with no hint of jealousy, like he was happy for her.

“Yeah, well, I’ll be happy to share any more wine with the two of you any day of the week.” Eugene broke eye contact and took another bite of sausage, holding out the nub to Pascal. “Want a bite? No? Your loss.” He shrugged and tossed the sausage nub into the air and, after shifting his neck a bit, caught it between his teeth.

Pascal seemed thoroughly impressed and began clapping his tiny lizard hands together. Mouth open in wonderment, the chameleon looked over at Cassandra and pointed at her, then Eugene, then her again.

“Sausages fly better than lamb, too, Pascal!” Rapunzel was pouting and reached a hand out to Eugene. “C’mon, give me something, I know I can do it this time.” Eugene furrowed his brow in confusion, looking from Rapunzel to Pascal and back for an explanation.

“You weren’t there, Eugene. I was tryna teach Raps how to catch food in her mouth like that, but she couldn’t get it, isn’t that right, Princess?” Cassandra removed a hand from around Rapunzel’s waist to pat the Princess on her head, but the tone she had at the end of her sentence made clear she was being patronizing.

Eugene was chuckling now that he had the situation explained to him. “You can show off during dinner tonight.”

“No, she can’t! I’m not going to let her do that in front of His and Her Royal Highnesses.” Cassandra turned her head again so her other cheek rested on Rapunzel’s shoulder as she snaked her arm back around the Princess’s waist. Truth was, she was feeling a lot clearer headed now, but she was getting accustomed to riding like this. Yeah, she could definitely get used to this.

“Then the next time we go out to eat, just us,” Rapunzel said. For a moment, Cassandra felt the tinge of sadness before Rapunzel added “you, too, Cass. I want to show you, too, that I can catch food in my mouth just as good as either of you.”

“You realize you’re being proud of doing something a dog can do, right?” Cassandra chuckled and gave Rapunzel’s waist a gentle squeeze.

“And  _ you _ realize you're also comparing  _ yourself _ to a dog, right?” she said in response, causing Eugene and Pascal to laugh. Even Maximus seemed to chortle in amusement at the witty handmaiden being outwitted. Cassandra didn’t respond, instead turning her face into a pout and squeezing Rapunzel’s waist tighter.

“Aw, I’m sorry, Cass.” Even though she was apologizing, Rapunzel was still stifling one of her cute, girlish giggles. “Let’s go to the Snuggly Duckling, they don’t care about table manners there at all.”

To their side, Eugene let out a single, pointed ‘Hah!’ that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Yeah, they definitely don’t care about table manners over there. They barely care about  _ tables _ .” Eugene leaned forward in his saddle, trying to get Cassandra’s attention. “But hey, they do care about their ales. You can prove to me you can really ‘drink me under the table’ like you said before.”

Cassandra turned her head again, switching cheeks so she could look at Eugene. “Oh, you’re on.” Her voice had that combative edge she liked to use on Eugene, but for something like this she didn’t make it so sharp.

“Just don’t let the others know we’re having a drinking contest, though. If any of the guys hear you’re trying to prove your liquor, we’ll have to deal with the undisputed master.” Cassandra’s brow wrinkled; she had never heard of an undisputed master before.

“Who’s that?” Rapunzel asked before she could.

“Shorty.”

“Ooh…” Rapunzel and Cassandra said in unison, both surprised they had missed such an obvious answer.

“Yeah, I think his body just makes the stuff at this point.” Eugene said, without a hint of sarcasm or irony.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink anything.” The Princess looked down at Cassandra, but all she could offer was to shrug with her eyebrows. She’d never seen him drinking either.

“Right? But believe you me, if you’re drinking with Shorty, from start to finish he’s exactly the same.” Eugene moved his hand horizontally to show the lack of variation in Shorty’s level of inebriation.

Cassandra once again flipped which cheek she lay on Rapunzel’s shoulder to look at Eugene. “Then how can you tell he’s been drinking?”

“Exactly.” Eugene snapped his fingers and pointed at Cassandra.

“Ooh…” Rapunzel and Cassandra said in unison once again.

“There’s the bridge.” Rapunzel said as the path ahead began to merge with others and all funnel to the Corona Bridge. Cassandra unlatched her arms from Rapunzel’s waist, removing her head from the Princess’s shoulder and sitting upright. She ran both hands through her hair in a futile attempt to make it behave and brushed at her tunic as they approached more trafficked paths to the city.

Realizing how abrupt her change was, Cassandra looked over to see if Eugene had noticed. Thankfully, he hadn’t seemed to have caught the change in her demeanor, or if he did, he smartly made no indication that he had. More importantly, Cassandra snapped her head to the woman sharing the saddle with her. Ugh, Rapunzel must have thought her sudden movements were so weird!

Instead, she saw a happy, if slightly embarrassed looking, Rapunzel looking over her shoulder before it turned back to the road. Cassandra felt her cheeks redden and she averted her gaze downwards in her own embarrassment.

“Are you… feeling better?” Rapunzel asked softly, almost like she didn’t want Cassandra to hear.

“Yeah, my head feels a lot clearer.” Cassandra considered  _ what _ she had actually cleared in her head. Perhaps the best way to clear your mind of something you’re not sure you’re supposed to do is to just  _ do it _ .

“Are you sure? Because if you’re still feeling a bit, you know…” Rapunzel turned her head over her shoulder and had a very hesitant smile. “You can still… hold on to me.” The Princess snapped her head back to the road ahead like she instantly regretted what she said.

Talking softly like she didn’t really want Cassandra to hear her again, she said “I kinda liked it.” Her head was tilted forward, and her shoulders were braced. Cassandra could tell Rapunzel was as conflicted about what she was saying as Cassandra was hearing it.

Hesitantly, Cassandra reached for Rapunzel’s shoulders and, after one or two false starts, slowly placed her hands on the Princess’s tense shoulders. She felt them loosen underneath her hands and Cassandra gave them an experimental squeeze. “Thanks, Raps. I kinda liked it, too.”

Rapunzel relaxed under Cassandra’s gently squeezing fingers. Now Cassandra understood how Owl had perched upon Rapunzel’s shoulders so delicately, even with his razor-sharp talons. There was something soothing in her fragility that made you want to be just as gentle as she was.

Cassandra realized she was getting dangerously close to giving Rapunzel a shoulder massage and worse, wasn’t sure if she didn’t want to. Maybe there wouldn’t be any harm in pampering the Princess in a more personal manner?

The sound of the city reminded Cassandra that here, in the middle of traffic, on horseback, crossing the Corona Bridge, was probably not the best time to find an answer to that question. With reluctance she slid her hands from Rapunzel’s shoulders down her arms, patting them in a comforting manner, and released her. There’d be plenty of time later to think about these feelings later, maybe even  _ talk _ to Rapunzel about them!

The her in the mirror flashed in her mind. Convent. She shook her head, bringing her hands to her cheeks and running them down like she was trying to peel her own face off. It had to be the wine talking, what she was thinking was… well it wasn’t  _ wrong _ . 

She knew it couldn’t be  _ wrong _ . 

But it wasn’t  _ right _ .

...Right?

“So, when’d be a good day to go pubbing?” Eugene’s question snapped Cassandra out of her thoughts, and she snapped to look at him, unintentionally throwing all her uncertainty at him with a harsh look he hadn’t earned.

“What? I want to make sure you join us on purpose next time instead of by happy accident,” Eugene said, as though that was the most obvious thing in the world to include Cassandra in the couple’s plans. “It really was a lot more fun with you with us, Cassandra.” There it was the way he said her name with the wrong emphasis. But after the harsh look he didn’t deserve, she had it coming.

“Really? I thought I was interrupting your precious alone time.” 

Eugene just shrugged. “Having you around makes Sunshine happy. When she’s happy, I’m happy.” The rogue gave Rapunzel an air kiss and gave Cassandra a twinge of jealousy. “And, I gotta admit, you’re not too bad to be around when you’ve not got a stick-”

“Eugene!” Rapunzel interjected; eyebrow raised in astonishment.

“Stick, stick…  _ strict _ attitude.” This seemed to satisfy the Princess who returned her attention to where they were going.

A smug grin returned to Cassandra’s face at Eugene’s admonishment and she directed it right at Eugene, who frowned in frustration. “See, not like this.” He waved a finger at her like her attitude was a physical trait he could point out.

Cassandra gave him a chuckle, not quite admitting he was right. “I’ll check my schedule and let you know,” she took the opportunity to lean forward, her body ever so slightly touching Rapunzel again, “but we’re definitely gonna see who can hold out longer with  _ real _ drinks, Fitzherbert.”

Eugene made a haughty, Flynn Rider style laugh and winked at the handmaiden. “Oh-ho, you know I’m gonna hold you to that.”

As they joined the horses, carts, and pedestrians crossing the Corona Bridge and continued chatting about the merits, or lack thereof, of alcoholic consumption, one thought stuck in Cassandra’s mind.

Maybe, just maybe, she’d always be welcome by their side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow. I went full Cassunzel with this one. I was really pushing the envelope here so early in the season, but I was getting impatient.
> 
> I'm still trying to write a Casandra POV chapter where she's legitimately happy, and this is kind of the closest I could get, and it involved making a character judgement regarding wine. I figure everyone's got their weaknesses.
> 
> I also am trying to write more chapters that lead right into each other, rather than hopping between episodes. I suspect I'll end up going back to episode referential chapters whether I intend to or not. Hopefully I can just write enough to require multiple chapters!
> 
> As always, please let me know what you thought of this chapter, I get a rocket boost of creativity whenever someone comments, good or bad! Thanks for reading.


	12. Hold It Tight, Hold It Tight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Letting the Snow In, and Being Punished For. Holding Hands on a Snow Day. Two Teacups Embrace. Decorative Linens. A Scene From the Episode, Verbatim. Corona’s Special Forces. The Handmaiden’s Loss and a Another Word for Care. Under Her Breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During "Queen for a Day" Part II
> 
> Please be aware I copy the opening scene of Queen for a Day Part II in the middle of this chapter, only adding narration. I mean no ill will in my plagiarism, and apologize in advance.

Rapunzel was afraid for her family's life.

She was afraid for the lives of everyone in the kingdom, in fact. What had begun as her first opportunity for royal decision making as the future Queen of Corona had quickly devolved into a harrowing, possibly cataclysmic event.

Snow. She'd never really gotten to experience snow before. Mother… no, not Mother, she still needed to remind herself not to even  _ think _ of that woman as her Mother.  _ Gothel _ had never let her out of The Tower--she still needed to mentally capitalize the T's--to play in the snow. Gothel had never let her out of The Tower at all, of course, but snow was an explicitly outside activity.

One winter, Rapunzel had left the rafter windows open on one of the nights Gothel had spent away. It was terribly freezing, so much so that tucking hot coals in her bed wouldn't cut it that night. She and Pascal had needed to sleep in front of the fireplace. But when they woke up it was magnificent.

Whole mounds of white fluff had accumulated beneath the windows, and Rapunzel had done her best to imitate all the fun she had read about in her books. A little snow hut she could curl up in. A snowman of herself and Pascal and Gothel. Even a snowball fight with Pascal!

It had been fantastic until Gothel had returned. Rapunzel could still hear every word of the lecture she had received and feel the burn of her angry eyes. Her hands flexed at the thought of the extra chores she had to do in order to fix the damage to The Tower the snow has caused. She shivered at the memory of having to spend the next few nights sleeping without any hot coals to heat her bed as punishment.

But the worst thing of the memory was remembering how  _ remorseful _ she had been. 

Sure, to some extent, letting snow into your home was something to be sorry for, but the regret she had felt was far more than that. She had betrayed Mother's trust; she had done a wicked thing and she was wicked for having done it. The most painful part of the memory was how much power Mother had over her.

_ Not  _ Mother.

It had been part of why that morning she had declared the rest of the day an official snow day for the city. To reclaim some of the memory of snow and make it her own. 

And, for a little while, it had worked.

Now Rapunzel stood in one of the parlors of the castle, looking out a front facing window. People's homes were quickly becoming unsafe refuge from the storm. The royal guards were ushering in more and more of the city into the castle while somewhere out there Eugene, Lance, Maximus, and the Pub Thugs were getting the more handicapped townspeople to safety. From her position, Rapunzel could watch them all coming in, and more importantly to Rapunzel, they could see her.

At least, for now they could. The wind was piling the snow into the windows, obscuring what could be seen on either side. This was probably for the best, because the truth was seeing their Queen pro tempore with a furrowed brow and worry in her eyes was not exactly great for morale.

Her eyes were transfixed on a spot she and her friends had just occupied earlier that day. Things had been so  _ fun, _ experiencing outside snow properly for the first time.

She had laughed at her boyfriend's dislike for snow. "C'mon, Eugene!" Rapunzel was sliding in circles on the ice and every time she came back around to Eugene, she made another petition to get him to join her.

"It's so slidey!"

"It's like gliding on ice!

"It  _ is _ ice!"

"Best snow day ever!"

"Come slide with me, c'mon it's fun!"

Every one of those sentences deserved the exclamation marks.

Some of the townspeople were in the castle courtyard, most of it having iced over and become an impromptu skating rink. Everyone was enjoying sliding and skating across the surface. 

Except Eugene. He had propped himself on a pile of snow, hunched over with how elbows in his knees. 

Her exuberance unfortunately had little effect on the rogue. "I can see that, sweetheart, and I've done pretty good for my life so far  _ not _ slipping on ice. I think I'll keep up my streak and stay away from all the cold and dangerousness."

"Your loss, tiger." A hand slapped the back of Eugene's head, pushing his hat over his eyes and nearly toppling him into the snow. Rapunzel couldn't help but laugh as Cassandra expertly slid over to her, stopping exactly where she wanted and taking Rapunzel's hand to spin her around like a ballerina.

"If you're going to just mope, I'm gonna take your girlfriend out for a skate around town." Rapunzel smiled brightly at her handmaiden, holding her hand tightly. Her balance was still iffy; she was still getting used to having to wear  _ shoes _ for the weather.  _ Especially _ these winter shoes meant to allow the wearer the ability to easily glide across ice.

If Eugene wasn't going to hold her hand while she was learning, then she could hold Cassandra's. It was hard to describe, but Rapunzel felt just as safe with Cassandra as she felt with her boyfriend. If she fell in this new element, the prospect of falling into Cassandra's arms felt like the same as falling into the arms of the love of her life.

She didn't need to know why; there was just something natural about it.

"Go right ahead, I'm perfectly fine staying here with Lance and Shorty." The larger thug had built a recliner that would have been more in place at the beach if it weren't made of snow while the smaller was demonstrating unbelievable skill in pirouettes, reverse skating, and all-around ice-based coordination. Shorty was always full of surprises.

"I got one for you, too, your kingliness." Lance had indeed built a second recliner for him.

"See? He'll be fine," Cassandra said, already pulling her away.

As they skated down to the city, Rapunzel laughed at hearing Eugene say "Are you  _ still _ wearing the King’s hat? Cause if you are, that’s technically mine now."

But that was this morning. 

That was before she had skated hand in hand with Cassandra through the city. That was before they had stopped to play with some of the towns-children. That was before they returned to the castle courtyard tired and listened to one of Xavier's legends.

That was before the skies had gotten darker and the snow had gotten thicker and the winds had gotten fiercer.

That was before Maximus had returned still strapped in a carriage harness but without a carriage.

So now here they all were. A parlor of the castle stuffed full of townspeople all huddled near the fire. One of many such rooms with fireplaces that guards and staff rotated through, ensuring everyone's safety and comfort. The castle had become the fortress it had proudly been built as, but this time the enemy was the elements.

"Here, Raps. Have some tea. Pascal made it himself." A teacup rattled on a saucer by Rapunzel's side--even Cassandra shivered in this worsening storm.

"Thanks, Cass." Despite saying this, Rapunzel made no attempt to take the cup of tea.

She continued to stare out the window, it's position one of the reasons she had chosen this parlor as her particular shelter for now. Nigel and the Captain were in the war room upstairs, working out… something. Rapunzel didn't know what.

And that was the problem.

"You can barely see anything," Cassandra ventured. Rapunzel appreciated her efforts at a conversation. "There's nothing to see anyways, let's board up the windows at least."

"No. Keep them closed but leave them unboarded. I need to be able to see." The two stood there, watching more and more of the city ushered into the castle while more and more of the snow accumulated on the glass. 

"What am I supposed to do?" Rapunzel still wasn't looking at Cassandra, but she could feel the worried look her handmaiden was giving her.

"I wish I knew, Raps. I've never seen a winter this bad before. It's been mild the past few years." It wasn't a response Rapunzel had wanted to hear, but with Cassandra saying it felt comforting all the same.

More moments passed. More people were ushered into the parlor. More rooms filled up with the huddling subjects of Corona.

_ Her _ subjects.

She turned to Cassandra, throwing herself into the woman's chest and huddling into the fur trim of her coat. She felt Cassandra's arms awkwardly wrap around her, the clinking of two teacups on two saucers attempting to include themselves in the embrace.

"The people… my parents… Cass… what am I supposed to do?" The Princess was almost crying and burying her face into her handmaiden's coat in an attempt to stop herself.

"I…" was all Cassandra said before pushing her away. Right, she had crossed a line in diving into Cassandra's arms. Cassandra didn't like to be touched, and especially not like that.

Rapunzel turned back to the window, doing her best to will away her sniffling. She ran a sleeve under her nose and tried to blink away the beginning of tears. She was expected to be Queen and expected to act like it.

She didn't expect to have a hand on her shoulder spin her around and pull her into an embrace. Taken by surprise, Rapunzel's arms were folded vertically against her own chest, and a hand on the back of her head tucked her into slightly damp fur trimming.

She looked up at Cassandra's concerned expression for only a moment before burying her face into her handmaiden's coat once again. She let herself cry. It wasn't a big cry, just a series of soft sobs and light sniffles.

Rapunzel didn't know how long she stood in Cassandra's embrace, the only indication of time the gentle pats on the back of her head by Cassandra's gloved hand. Cassandra didn't say anything. She didn't need to. Falling into her arms was enough. Just  _ this _ was enough.

After what felt like an eternity, Rapunzel took a deep breath and pushed against Cassandra, the handmaiden letting the Princess go just as easily as she had taken her into her arms. Rapunzel noticed the faint reflection of her face made of tears on the fur trim of Cassandra's coat.

"You let all the sadness out?" Cassandra asked, placing her hands on her hips. Despite Cassandra's trademarked sharp tone, it wasn't a judgmental question. Her eyes made it clear this was an open invitation to continue if Rapunzel needed.

"Enough of it for now." Rapunzel said, about to wipe her nose on her sleeve again before Cassandra whipped a napkin out of her pocket. It was one of the napkins that were usually on tea saucers. Rapunzel took it and blew her nose in that delicate way she had learned in her etiquette lessons.

"Let's try to stay busy, it'll help." Cassandra looked over at the fireplace, her arms crossed over where Rapunzel had been crying. "I'm gonna go tend to the fire," she said. 

Rapunzel nodded in embarrassment; being near the fire would surely dry up and remove any evidence of her tears. The handmaiden left her, only stopping to pick up from a side table the two servings of tea she and Rapunzel hadn't taken the time to drink.

Another deep breath later, Rapunzel looked over the subjects that were huddling near the fire for warmth. None of them had paid any attention to their temporary Queen crying into the arms of her personal Lady-in-Waiting.

Good.

She  _ needed _ to be Queenly: tend to her people's needs and make them comfortable. At least until Nigel and the Captain returned with some ideas. Even Pascal was being of more use than she was; the chameleon helping make warm tea with the castle's cook.

Warmth...That was it!

Blankets, things to help keep people warm! Any extra insulation in this cold would help and the castle had plenty. She walked with purpose out of the parlor and into Nigel and the Captain.

"Your Highness, we must speak with you." The castellan's face was always in a near constant state of worry, but Rapunzel could tell this was different. Her father's royal advisor planned for everything, but there was no plan for this.

Not her father's royal advisor,  _ her _ royal advisor.

"I am going to get some blankets," was all Rapunzel said, brushing past the two.

"Your Highness! Now is not the time for-" Rapunzel turned on her heel with the intent of staring the man down and asserting her authority, but behind them she saw a guard ushering a family into the parlor she just vacated.

The authority in her face drained and she let out a sigh. "Just… wait in the parlor. My people need blankets and… I'm going to get some." She was trying to string together words that sounded like what a royal might say, but it just wasn't coming together for her.

"At least let-" once again Nigel was interrupted, but this time by the Captain placing a hand on his shoulder.

"The linens aren't that far; she'll get them and come right back. I, for one, need a minute to stand in front of a fire, anyways." The commander nodded at Rapunzel and Nigel's face of constant worry softened just a bit.

"We will be waiting for you in the parlor, Your Highness." The two turned and entered the large, warm room leaving Rapunzel alone for now in the hallway.

All of this came so easily to Nigel. It seemed like managing the staff and the castle and the minutia of royal life was what he had been born to do. 

Except it  _ wasn't _ what he had been born to do. 

It was what Rapunzel had been born to do.

And she had no idea how to do it.

She brought her hands to her face, slapping her cheeks lightly but firmly. "Blankets," she muttered to herself and began walking again. The Captain had been right, one of the linen closets was not far but its contents weren't what she had hoped. In neat little stacks were throw blankets, more decorative than functional. 

Another example of castle life she couldn't really grasp: why keep blankets that weren't meant to keep you warm?

Her mind went to The Tower, to the lessons of utility and luxury she'd learned from Mother. From  _ Gothel _ . Her recent return to The Tower when Pascal ran away had reawakened a lot of the past traumas she thought she'd laid to rest.

Ugh, she was never  _ not _ going to think of  _ that woman _ as Mother, despite the healthier, more loving relationship she had developed with her biological mother.

The same mother that right now was lost in the mountains somewhere with the snows only getting worse. Her parents were trapped in increasingly hazardous conditions with only a rough location and Maximus's broken harnesses as clues to their whereabouts. They were Royal King and Queen of Corona, and right now they were in possibly more danger than their kingdom.

But they  _ could _ be rescued. And if  _ they _ could be rescued, then the  _ kingdom _ could be rescued. Rapunzel had learned just how far from getting all this she could get, but if she found her parents…

Rapunzel grabbed a stack of the thickest decorative blankets she could gather and a few throw pillows on the side. Anything to help.

She returned to the parlor in a run, looking to find Nigel. She spotted the majordomo at the edge of the crowd drinking a cup of tea next to Pascal and the cook. The Captain was speaking with his daughter in front of the fire.

Rapunzel took a deep breath again and pulled herself together. First, distribute the blankets.

The forward-facing position of the parlor made it easiest for the young and elderly to reach, so it was primarily families huddled in front of the fire. Rapunzel handed out pillows and blankets to those that needed it, draping her last blanket around a woman and child next to the tea cart.

Pascal served a cup of tea to Feldspar the cobbler as Rapunzel finally approached Nigel.

"Nigel, I need to go look for my parents." Her voice was more confident this time.

"But Your Highness… you're the Queen! You can't just leave your kingdom in its darkest hour." He took her by the shoulder and gently led her away from the crowd so as not to worry them.

"Oh Rapunzel, as much as it pains me to say this, their chances in elements such as these are… oh, well… let's pray your parents found shelter before the worst of the storm hit." He looked as pained as the words he said.

"But we can't just let them freeze!" Rapunzel let her worry seep through in her voice.

"My dear, going out in that weather now is a virtual death sentence, you cannot go!"

"He's right Rapunzel." Both Nigel and Rapunzel turned to the door. Eugene, Lance, and Maximus walked in, flanked by Attila, Vladimir, Big Nose, and Hook Foot. "You can't, but we can," Eugene continued as he approached Rapunzel.

"But you just heard Nigel, it's a death trap." She couldn't believe what he was suggesting.

"Look at us, Princess," Lance spoke up. "If the rest of the world had its way, each and every one of us would either be on the run… or locked up somewhere."

"But your parents had the heart to give us a second chance. A chance to prove ourselves and go straight," Big Nose continued, his cheeks reddening to the same color as his nose and that dreamy look in his eyes he had when he recited poetry.

"The least we could do is give them a second chance of their own," Atilla added, crossing his arms and nodding his helmeted face.

"Listen to them," Eugene said with increasing urgency. He placed both hands on her shoulders and Rapunzel looked up into his eyes. "Rapunzel, there's no other option. The mountains made for a great hideout back in the day. I know those roads better than anyone. Face it, we're the men for this job."

A cocky smile climbed into the lower half of his face, but his eyes showed how serious he was taking the situation. "Besides, even a make-believe-King has gotta make himself useful." He was looking over her shoulder and Rapunzel turned to see what he was looking at.

Cassandra was standing there with her father, and she looked genuinely worried. Not just worried, she looked guilty.

"Your Highness, the guards should really be the ones to go." The Captain of the guard approached Rapunzel and Eugene, as serious as ever.

"If this storm keeps up, things could get ugly and this kingdom is going to need it's guards," Eugene pointed out.

The Captain seemed to consider this. "Your Highness, it's your call," he said.

Eugene looked into Rapunzel's eyes and she looked back into his. He must have seen her pain because he offered another cocky grin, the kind that was usually accompanied by the words 'trust me' and a stupid stunt.

Except this  _ wasn't _ a stupid stunt. This was a dangerous mission that he might not come back from. This wasn't something she wanted to allow the most important man in her  _ life _ to do.

But she had to.

Rapunzel used a deep sigh to hold back her tears and failed to say without her voice breaking "go."

Eugene pulled her into his arms, holding her tight like Cassandra had less than an hour before. Only this time she resolved not to cry.

"We’ll be back. I promise," Eugene said after far too short a time. He held her cheek in one hand and kissed her on the forehead. Rapunzel held that hand even when he began to walk away like she could keep him from going if she held on hard enough. But she had to let go.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch Eugene slowly march out of the parlor with his best friend, the Pub Thugs, and his horse. She felt breath on her face and heard the whiney of Maximus. She opened her to see the stallion giving her a look of deep concern. Placing her hands on either side of his face she pressed her forehead to his.

"Bring them home, Max," she said. Her parents, the brave men risking their new lives, and the man she loved most in the world.

The horse left to join the unlikely special forces team after a forlorn look. A squeak at her shoulder revealed Pascal doing his best to console her. She leaned her cheek into his head, one of the earliest sources of comfort she'd had in her life.

She felt Cassandra's presence to her right and looked up to see a guilty face with eyes filled with concern. "Don't worry, Raps. If anyone can find your parents," the older woman assured, as she pulled her into an embrace, "they can." 

Rapunzel rested her head against Cassandra's cheek, letting herself get pulled into Cassandra's arm as Pascal nuzzled into her neck.

The three watched the door close after the men and for a moment didn't move or say anything.

"Your Highness-" the Captain attempted to begin further coordination efforts but suddenly stopped. Not even a hardened military officer could override the authority of their own daughter's icy glare. "I'll give you two a moment."

Cassandra rubbed her hand up and down Rapunzel's shoulder. It did nothing to fill her body with warmth, but it did fill her with comfort. She returned her head to the reassuring crook of Cassandra's neck, wanting to close her eyes and have all of this gone when she opened them again. She actually did feel her vision blurring and she realized the tears she had been holding back finally needed their release. She turned her body back into Cassandra's chest, burying her face into the fur lining of her coat again.

"It's ok, Raps." The hand patting the back of her head returned. "Eugene knows what he’s doing." Rapunzel let herself sob again. She had wanted to do this in Eugene's arms, but in front of everyone she had to hold back. It wasn't fair.

"I can't lose him again." Her sobs grew ever so louder. "He died for me once already, Cass. I can't have him die for me again, I just can't." Rapunzel's voice was soft and muffled by Cassandra's coat but a part of her wanted to shout. A part of her wanted to sing.

_ Flower gleam and glow… _

Things used to be so much easier. She didn't used to have to make these kinds of decisions. Her biggest problems were solved by a single, simple song and she couldn't even do that anymore. And even if she could, it couldn't solve all of  _ this _ .

"You won't. I promise you; he's coming back." The patting on the back of her head had turned into soothing strokes of her hair. 

She usually didn't like to have her hair stroked like this, it reminded her too much of how Gothel had always stroked her hair. Even Eugene didn't do it, knowing full well the connotations it conveyed and having had his own knife shaped traumas with Gothel's obsession with Rapunzel's hair.

But when Cassandra stroked her hair it felt...soothing. Somehow it felt so much like how Gothel used to stroke her hair, but in a  _ good _ way. The comforting way when she still believed Gothel loved her. When things were so much easier.

Rapunzel gently exited Cassandra's embrace, wiping her eyes and taking a tea napkin proffered by Pascal. Did he have this since he was making tea? Where had he been stashing it? It didn't matter, she just thanked him and wiped her nose.

Still, Cassandra kept her hand on the side of Rapunzel's arm, stroking it just as gently. "He's a good man, Raps. He doesn't have to do this, but he is. He'll come back. They'll all come back." Cassandra's voice had that hint of guilt she had shown on her face earlier. Rapunzel tilted her head at her handmaiden, knowing there must be something she wanted to say.

"I said something to him earlier today," Cassandra sighed. "He kept saying how he was 'King for a Day' and I called him out on it. If he was gonna play at being King, he should put his money where his mouth is. I made one dumb remark and now he's run off trying to prove me wrong."

Cassandra's words were angry words, ones that didn't match the guilt and worry she had displayed earlier. The  _ way _ she said those words, though, matched her worry and guilt perfectly.

"He’s just a big idiot with a big head playing a dumb game and now he's out there being a  _ good man _ ." Cassandra was staring at the door now and her hand had stopped on Rapunzel's arm. "He's out there risking his stupid life and he's charmed all his stupid friends to help him on a stupid quest to save your parents because he's a  _ good man _ . He's going to come back, Raps," she pulled the princess into her arms again but this time it felt like it was for her sake rather than Rapunzel's.

"He's going to come back because good men who go off and do dumb, dangerous things like this always come back. They  _ always _ come back. They have to." This time it was Cassandra who seemed like she was going to cry. Rapunzel wrapped her arms around Cassandra's waist, giving her a squeeze of comfort.

Rapunzel connected the dots of what Cassandra was saying, of what Cassandra was  _ feeling _ . Her dad was the Captain of the Guard. She had grown up surrounded by guardsmen. Corona may be a safe kingdom and hadn't been at war for years, but life as a guard was still dangerous. She must have seen so many people leave on dangerous assignments and Rapunzel wondered how many she had seen come back.

Cassandra’s words were just as much for herself as they were for Rapunzel. “I just love him so much, Cass,” was all Rapunzel could say.

“I know, Raps. I—" Cassandra's voice cut off like she needed to rephrase her words. “He… means a lot to me, too.” Her voice cracked and Rapunzel could feel the indomitable handmaiden take the same emotion-managing deep breath she had been taking all day.

“He really is the man for the job. Him and those bozos, they’ll find your parents, Raps, and they’ll bring them home.” Cassandra released Rapunzel and ran her hands through her hair. That simple motion seemed to wipe away the emotional Cassandra and return her to her normal, competent self.

“Hoo,” sighed Rapunzel. “Alright. You let all the sadness out?” She echoed the words Cassandra had said to her before, the same meaning behind them. 

A wry smirk rose on Cassandra’s face and the energy in her eyes she had lost when Eugene had left came back.

“It's all out. C’mon, I think my dad wants to talk to you and I’ve got a few ideas.” She adjusted the hood of her coat and Rapunzel regretted depositing another helping of tears on her fur trimming. “You go see what plans he’s got; I’m going to find out if Owl can do some reconnaissance. Maybe if we figure out which way the storm is going, we can figure out which way to send people.”

Rapunzel nodded and steeled herself as Cassandra left. It seemed like that was all it took for Cassandra to pull herself together. A moment to let her sadness out, then she was back to business. Rapunzel envied her.

“Captain,” she said, reconvening with him and Nigel. “What have you got for me?”

“We cannot stay in the castle, Princess. We don’t know how long the storm will last and with how quickly it came in we don’t have the supplies to feed the whole city.” They were huddled to the side of the parlor, but since Eugene and the Pub Thugs had left, more people had been brought in for shelter. Heads raised in concern and the Captain’s naturally loud voice certainly did not help.

“Your Highness, Captain. May I suggest we take this conversation elsewhere?” Nigel offered, always aware of his surroundings, always diplomatic. “The antechamber to the war room perhaps?”

“Yeah, that’s… a good idea.” Rapunzel conceded. She didn’t need to make the townspeople as worried as she was. Nigel held his arm out to the door with a bow, falling into step with the Captain as he and Rapunzel left the room.

This was it, time for some real royal decision making. She was born to do it, and even if she was slightly faking, that was all there was to it. “I’ve got this,” she said to herself under her breath.

She was Queen, even if it was only for a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed my elaboration of the opening scene of Queen for a Day Part II. I wanted to explore that scene a bit more, and flesh out the competency of Nigel & the Captain versus Rapunzel's overwhelmed demeanor.
> 
> Also throw in some Cassunzel and hint at Cassgene.
> 
> I'm almost done with season one, and the next chapter is and almost completed Cassgene filled Not in the Mood side story. But after that I can't decide whether it will be one, two, or three chapters about the fight against Varian.
> 
> What do you guys think? Something during the Quest for Varian, something before the Final Battle, and then something after? Lemme know what you'd like to see and maybe it'll help be figure out where to aim my creativity.


	13. Emotion Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anxiety, and a Lack of Familiarity. Crowley in Charge. Armor, and the Importance of Cleaning. The Handmaiden Invades Personal Space. Breastplates. Not a Hug, but an Embrace. Flies Prefer Vinegar. Not What It Looks Like. Who Enjoyed It More?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During "Not in the Mood"

Eugene had never been more afraid in his life.

He had stared down loaded crossbows before. He had rappelled off buildings with only bedsheets as his safety line. He had even been strapped to a chair once with the Baron's men holding pliers and an over enthusiastic interest in his fingernails. Heck, in this very castle he was imprisoned to be hanged until dead only a few months ago. But he'd never felt _this_ kind of fear before.

It rose from inside of him and made no sense. It felt like every eye on him was silently judging him, even when there were no eyes around him to do the judging. Eugene felt like he was submerged in quicksand and every movement he tried to make brought him closer to suffocation.

He had heard of this feeling before, and the closest thing he had ever gotten to experiencing it was when Gothel had taken Rapunzel back to the tower. And even in that case, he actually _did_ get killed from it, so ultimately the feeling was a pretty justified survival instinct. 

Unlike now.

Eugene was feeling _anxiety_ . Him! Eugene Fitzherbert, the man who gallivanted through the Seven Kingdoms as Flynn Rider and a slew of other pseudonyms flaunting every rule with style and panache! It was not a very familiar feeling. It was not a very _good_ feeling.

"It's ok, you can do this. Just fill the tank with water…" he mumbled to himself, trying to remember how exactly this fog machine worked. "There you go, that should do it. Right? That's enough water. Uh… but the Great Hall is pretty big, what if it just kinda… mists instead of fogs? I better put more." The hesitant man lifted the pale of water but stopped before he poured more in.

"On the other hand, the machine might not hold any more water. If I fill it up too much, it might break… it might even explode! Oh man, if it exploded that would be a catastrophe… I should just leave it." Eugene put the bucket down and looked at the expanse of the Great Hall. "But what if… agh!"

He dragged his hands down his face, pulling his cheeks down until the whites of his eyes were visible. "This is all Max and the frog's fault!" He said out loud, stumbling to the doorway and leaning forward with his hands on either side of the frame. He did a facsimile of push-ups and took deep breaths.

"Breath, just breath. You can do this. Just gotta reach inside and pull out the inner you.. you’ve faked it through a dozen situations and pretended to be dozens of people you weren’t. Just pretend to be someone who isn't terrified!" The pep talk was not working.

"Why did I even want to be the Master of Ceremonies in the first place? All eyes will be on me, and all eyes shouldn't be on _me_ . This isn't _my_ big day. This banquet could decide the fate of Corona, I should just relax and humbly sit by as those in authority talk things out." Just that morning Eugene had said the exact opposite thing to Rapunzel and Cassandra, but right now he could only think of how foolish he was.

For some insane reason Maximus and Pascal had slipped him, Rapunzel, and Cassandra a potion from Xavier meant to reverse a person’s defining characteristics. Rapunzel’s helpful and hopeful attitude had warped into a selfish and pessimistic worldview, Cassandra’s typically cynical and practical nature had become peppy and flamboyant, while Eugene’s confidence and showmanship had shattered into humility and restraint. It was like they had each traded a feature with the other two.

Supposedly this had been to teach the trio a lesson, a lesson that Eugene was so embarrassed they had not realized on their own. It was so obvious their increasingly frequent fighting would upset those around them and potentially damage their relationships with each other! The last thing he wanted was for his boastful and inconsiderate attitude to push the two most important people in his life away.

Except that was who he was. That was how he had always been and was his true nature if those two meddlesome animals hadn’t thought to drug them with spiked lemonade! All he had to do, Eugene tried to convince himself, was get his head on straight and power through the effects of this potion. He stopped doing push-ups on the door and walked into the big, imposing Great Hall.

"No, no, no! C'mon Fitzherbert, it's just Xavier's potion making you the opposite of how you normally are. You're confident, you're strong, you're Flynn flipping Rider!" He was pacing now in a quick, furtive manner. All this nervous energy had to go somewhere.

Behind him the sound of doors opening and the shuffling of soft soled shoes on carpet made Eugene almost leap out of his skin. The banquet wasn’t supposed to start for another two hours! Rapunzel wasn't even out in the courtyard to greet the Griffin of Pittsford yet! In a panic he dived for the antechamber his fog machine was sitting in. The thief slid across the floor to thud against the metal casing. “Yeow…”

He rubbed his head at the spot where he had collided with the fog machine. “Stupid, stupid,” he mumbled. Poking his head out of the antechamber, rather than throngs of visiting dignitaries he only saw old lady Crowley ordering several of the castle staff in setting up tables and chairs. Right, right, they're just setting things up. Eugene wiped sweat off his forehead. Oh no, he had sweat on his forehead!

Eugene stood up and looked at his reflection in the polished casing of the fog machine. "A little sweat is fine.. Even without confidence you still look great." His reflection gave him a weak smile. The potion only reversed the subject's defining traits, not how they perceived the world. When you're as objectively beautiful as Eugene was, it didn't matter how timid or modest you were. Truth is still truth, reality is still reality, and gorgeous is still gorgeous.

“I gotta get out of here,” he concluded when he realized he had picked up the bucket of water for the fog machine again. He placed it back down and exited the antechamber for the rear courtyards of the castle. Fresh air, that would help him think. Or to not think. Thinking was what was driving him up the wall. Is this how some people _lived_? Always looking before they leapt, considering all the ways people saw their actions? It was nerve wracking.

“Do Blondie and Cass always think this way?” he asked no one in particular.

When he made it to one of the rear patios he leaned against the far railing and watched everyone getting ready. It wouldn’t just be the Griffin of Pittsford coming today; there was to be some of the noblemen and women of Corona coming to meet with the Griffin and his envoy. Even some folks from neighboring Equis were to come for the opportunity to speak with the leader of the small, almost insignificant nation. If it weren’t for its location along major trade routes, Eugene was certain there was no reason for the King’s peace talks.

Another terrifying thought struck Eugene. Those trade routes had made for easy pickings back in the day, and the noble people coming to tonight’s banquet had been the easy targets for his banditry. How many of these people had he robbed once before? He never bothered to remember the faces of the people he stole from. It had only been a few months ago he had discovered one of the treasures he had stolen as a highwayman had been taken off the hand of the Queen. Literally, a ring right off her hand. What must have been a truly traumatic experience for her had been just another day at work for him.

He was still uncertain why the King hadn't rained down righteous fury upon him yet. Now that he didn’t have his trademark unflappable swagger, this uncertainty was turning into worry.

Finally Eugene opened the doors to one of the rear patios of the castle where he and Rapunzel had often taken breakfast or spent an afternoon learning etiquette from Cassandra. Well, Rapunzel learned etiquette, he usually just fooled around with Pascal. It kept them both from interfering with the lessons, so it had been allowed. The patio had metal chairs and tables painted white and engraved with flowers of varying designs, but Eugene ignored them to lean on the balcony railing instead. It allowed him a clear view to the courtyard below.

No sooner had Eugene rested his elbows on the granite railing did he hear a surprisingly shrill exclamation. “You two look _so good!_ ” His attention was drawn to the sudden excitement and he saw Pete and Stan being inspected by a very enthusiastic superior officer. Whomever it was buzzed around the pair of guards, using a rag to polish their armor even though they were already wearing it.

“Oop! You’ve got a bit of a smudge right here. I’ll just buff that out. See? Doesn’t that feel much better, Pete?” Eugene’s face mirrored the expressions of the two guards being mothered below: utter confusion.

“Uh, yeah. Totally,” the skinny guard said hesitantly.

“Should we be heading to the checkpoint? I thought it was ‘no one cares what you look like so long as you’re doing your job?’ I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be putting this much effort into being so… shiny.” Stan hefted his halberd in front of him partly to be even more at attention, but also partly to put some space between himself and this overly friendly superior officer.

“Nonsense! Who was the silly goose who said something so harsh?” The two guards glanced at each other, their eyes silently trying to convince the other to answer the question. Finally Pete won out and Stan braced himself.

“Uh, you did, Cassandra. Just this morning. And yesterday. Actually, you say that all the time.” Eugene remembered the two guards had been the first to notice the strangeness of his, Rapunzel, and Cassandra’s actions but it seemed they hadn’t gotten used to the weirdness of it all yet.

Not that they should, there was no way they were going to stay like this for long. At least, Eugene hoped. Maximus and Pascal _better_ come back with the counter-potion as soon as possible!

“Oh, that was a bunch of hooey! It’s just as important to _look_ good for this job as it is to _do_ it. It’s a party! We should make everyone who comes feel welcome! Now give me those Halberds, they’re far too sharp. It’ll be unwelcoming to wave these around at guests, there should be other ones in the armory.” Cassandra took the halberds off both men, shooing them back to the barracks. “And pick nice ones!” she called after them.

Earlier today Eugene had seen her sharpen _dozens_ of halberds and load them into a cart. She had been preparing to fend off a barbarian invasion just this morning, now she sounded so optimistic she wanted to be literally _inviting_.

Motion drew his attention, and Eugene realized Cassandra was waving at him from the courtyard. She held one Halberd upright in one hand while she swung the other above her head side to side to get his attention. Based on that one time he had borrowed her halberd, if he was being honest he had stolen it and felt awfully ashamed about it now, Eugene knew how heavy those weapons were. Seeing her wave it like nothing was as impressive as it was intimidating.

Oh, and he remembered how _dangerous_ those things were.

He returned her big smile with a weak one of his own and gave her a wave that was more fingers than hand. Compared to her lion-like waving, his response was more comparable to a mouse.

Eugene watched as she ran to a weapon rack, placed the two halberds neatly in their slots, and then ran up the patio stairs two at a time. “Eugene! Isn’t this great? Aren’t you excited for today?” she exclaimed as she leapt towards him. She stuck the landing, bent her knees, then sprung upwards like a jack-in-the-box with her arms waving high above her head.

If it weren’t for their reversed moods, there was no way Cassandra would even _want_ to greet him if she saw him watching her. She probably wouldn’t even have waved, much less asked him how he felt.

“Hah, yeah… I’m so ready. I mean, I’m terrified out of my mind and scared I’ll make a big mess of things, but I’m _ready_ to make a big mess of things, so that’s got to be a good thing, right?” He rose from the railing to properly face her, but he was holding his arms tightly across his chest as though he were cold.

“Uh oh, looking like someone has got a little case of the stage frights,” Cassandra said, placing her hands on her hips and leaning forward. Despite Eugene’s attempts to not meet her gaze, she was wriggling her body to stay in his sightline. “Don’t be scared, Eugene! Everything will work out fine. All you have to do is get out there and have fun and I’m confident everyone else will have fun right along with you. Even if you make one teeny-tiny slip up, no one will mind!”

“Well I’m _not_ confident. I can’t _have_ any slip ups, Cass. One slip up leads to another slip up somewhere else, and before you know it there’s slip ups all over the place! Today people _expect_ things from me.” For some reason he felt like he had said these words to her before. Or maybe she had said them to him? Either way, they were as familiar as they were true.

“What was I _thinking_ offering to MC such an important event? I shouldn’t have been so arrogant.” He sighed and slumped his shoulders, giving in to Cassandra’s efforts to maintain eye contact.

“You don’t need to be so uptight, silly! The Griffin is going to be so entertained by the fog machine and the confetti cannon, and then he’s going to be so impressed by Rapunzel’s speech, and then everyone will have a delicious dinner to celebrate! You better save me some cake, by the way. Promise.” Cassandra held a single finger out to Eugene and booped him on the nose. “Boop!” she actually said out loud.

Another thing Cassandra would never do were it not for their current altered mental states, Eugene needed to remind himself.

“How can you be so… so… optimistic?” Eugene took a step back and almost tumbled from her tap upon his nose. Oh no, his nose. Maybe the reason they had never gotten his nose right was because there really was something wrong with his nose? He brought a hand to his face to feel for any irregularities, but found none. Right, obviously he was still objectively beautiful.

“I can’t help it, Eugene! Everything feels like… like nothing can go wrong!” Cassandra’s face showed she meant every one of the exclamation marks she’d been using all day, but she faltered slightly.

“I’m not usually this peppy,” she admitted, “so this feels kind of weird. Xavier’s potion reverses a person’s defining trait, so does this mean I’m usually… uh, I’m mostly…”

“A huge buzzkill?” Eugene offered. “Agh, that was mean. I’m sorry, Cass. I shouldn't have said that,” he quickly offered. She must be so upset at hearing something like that.

“Oh, you don’t have to apologize! You’re one of my best buds, I appreciate your honesty.” She gave him a cordial slap on the back which caused Eugene to almost double over the railing. If he was still objectively beautiful, she was still objectively strong.

“You know, Eugene? I don’t say this enough, but I’m really happy you’re here.” Well that was surprising. Clearly that was the potion talking.

“Really?” he asked anyway.

“Of course! You make Rapunzel so happy after all. Your confidence and happy-go-lucky attitude bring such a refreshing atmosphere to the castle! Whenever you’re around the whole room feels a lot more exciting and fun.” There’s no way she actually believed what she was saying.

“C’mon, there’s no way that’s true. Ever since I came to the castle I’ve just thrown everything into chaos.” Eugene knew the potion affected a person’s mood, but if Cassandra was saying she _appreciated_ him here, maybe the potion was affecting Cassandra’s thoughts, too.

“No really, I mean every word of it! The castle can be such a stuffy place, everyone’s got to obey all these rules and follow all these procedures. When I’m with you I feel like maybe I could throw all that strictness out the window and just relax.” For some reason Eugene felt she was getting closer and closer to him now, and he unconsciously shuffled away for the sake of his own personal space.

“You know how great it is when you can just ‘be yourself’, right? That’s what it’s like when I’m around you. I don’t need to be polite or hold back my opinions. I can just say what’s on my mind.” There was a pause when Eugene found himself backed into one of the white, metal patio chairs. He looked up at Cassandra and, rather than the peppiness from before, she looked embarrassed. “At least, most of the time I can say what I’m feeling when I’m with you.”

All he had space to do was lean against the granite railing again. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again when he realized his brain hadn’t prepared a response. She just looked up at him with soft eyes that looked like they were begging him to accept the compliment.

Finally he closed his own eyes and shook his head. “No, no, no… there are plenty of times when it’s important to _not_ ‘be yourself’, you should know this most of all. Agh, think of all the times I should have just known my place and stood to the side instead of trying to make everything about _me_!” Eugene brought his hands up to his head again and rested his elbows on the railing. This time he squished his cheeks together until his face resembled a fish and turned to look at Cassandra through concerned, fish shaped eyes.

“Aww, you just need to believe in yourself, tiger. You know what always helps? A great, big hug!” Cassandra threw one arm around Eugene’s shoulder and the other around his waist, pulling him into a too-tight hug from his side. “See? Doesn’t this just feel nice?” she said. He’d never had her face so close to his without killer intent in her eyes before.

“C-Cass, I don’t think you should be doing this,” was all Eugene could stutter out. "I mean, what if someone _sees_ us?"

“Oh, It’s just someone giving one of her closest friends a bit of affection! There’s nothing wrong with that.” She didn’t back off from the hug. In fact, she actually rested her head on his shoulder. The metal fin on the top of her helmet looped around the back of Eugene’s neck and locked him in place.

“Uhm, Cass, your helmet. It’s, uh, it’s hurting me.” he choked out. She let go of him and he took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t trying to be ungrateful, I promise. I appreciate your hug, I really do, but this is just the potion making you be all Rapunzel- y. Um, I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings, but I should go double che--”

Before Eugene could make an escape he heard the clink of Cassandra’s helmet being placed on a metal patio table. No longer encumbered by the metallic headwear, she grabbed him by the shoulders.

“No way, you’re not going anywhere until we hug out your worries.” It was a tender, motherly declaration and surprised Eugene so much he didn’t know how to react before she pulled him into another hug. This time she draped both arms around his neck, pulling him tight and resting her head in the space just between his cheekbone and his shoulder.

“C’mon, it’s not a real hug unless you hug back~♫” Cassandra said in a sing-song quality that Eugene had heard from Rapunzel’s voice but had never, ever heard from Rapunzel’s Lady-in-Waiting. “You gotta hug me, too. C’mon, put your hands on my back. C’mon!”

Eugene raised his arms and hesitated a few different positions for them before finally placing his hands where she ordered him. As soon as he did he felt her tighten his arms around his neck and shoulders, pulling him closer to her.

An unfamiliar feeling brought Eugene’s attention to the breastplate pushing into his chest. Why was Cassandra’s breastplate so… _literal_ ? Of course, she was the Captain’s daughter, so getting custom fitted armor must have been easy for her, but still! Before this very moment he had never even _thought_ about her breast…plates. And he was certain she’d never _wanted_ him to think about them, especially not like this.

Now they were all he could think about.

“Mhmm, see Eugene?” Her face was so close to his ear he could feel the breath on his neck. Without her helmet he could feel her cheek nuzzling fondly into his shoulder. “Doesn’t a good hug make you feel better?” In truth the only thing Eugene could feel was his heart race. This was definitely no longer a hug, it was an _embrace_.

“Cass…” he tried, but was cut off.

“You know, I’m not a touchy-feely person. At all. Usually I really hate it, but during the snowstorm I saw how big of a difference a hug can make. Something as small as holding someone in your arms… it can be so, so helpful. So even though it’s a little strange for me, I’m ok with it so long as it can make you feel… happier.” This was the schmaltziest thing he had ever heard Cassandra say, and Eugene knew she hated schmaltz. He still wasn’t sure if the concoction didn’t just change how she felt, but also how she felt _about_ _him_.

Either way, her embrace really was making him feel happier.

To his own surprise, he tightened his half of the embrace, pulling him closer to her body. Had she always been this small? She was only maybe a hand’s breadth shorter than him, but she always loomed in his mind. Right now, though, with her arms draped around his neck and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, she felt small. Delicate. Gentle. _Cute_.

No, no, no, this was the potion affecting his feelings. He was being shy and cautious and timid over something _Cassandra_ was doing. Cold-blooded, fire-breathing Cassandra who insulted him at every chance. He needed to focus on anything but the way she was resting her cheek on his shoulder, breathing into his ear, pushing her body against his until his back was against the railing and her leg was against his thigh…

Something like this wasn’t so special! Plenty of women had held him like this before!

Of course it was usually some rich lady for a job, or a random floozy, or just some pretty face. Sometimes it wasn’t even a woman. Clearly this wasn’t anything he should be feeling… feelings about; this was just another person he’d charmed into holding him in a romantic embrace.

Except the person was Cassandra, he wasn’t sure if he could even _be_ charming right now, and there was no way romance was involved here.

Right?

Eugene wasn’t sure how long Cassandra was intent on embracing him and he actually didn't have a problem with that. It was not having a problem that was giving him a problem. Fortunately the sound of someone approaching startled Eugene enough to push Cassandra away and spin back around to lean on the granite railing. Unfortunately the someone doing the approaching was his girlfriend Rapunzel.

“What are you two blockheads doing?” Rapunzel barked at them.

“Oh, nothing! Mister shy-boots, here,” Eugene felt Cassandra place her hand on his back, “was feeling scared about giving his big show tonight so I thought a nice, loving hug would help cheer him right up!” Despite how innocent Cassandra’s uncharacteristically chipper tone made that sound, Eugene still felt his cheeks flush in just as uncharacteristic embarrassment. “Do _you_ want a hug to cheer _you_ up before your ‘big speech’ tonight?”

The hand left Eugene’s back and he hesitated a look over his shoulder. Rapunzel had an arm stretched out and held Cassandra’s head in one hand, palm against forehead. Cassandra’s arms were consequently windmilling at her sides in a futile attempt to pull the Princess into a hug.

“I already told you to get away from me with those hugs,” Rapunzel said, puffing air out of the corner of her mouth upwards so the small part of her bangs that now covered her left eye flapped out of the way. Everything from her posture to her voice to the way Rapunzel wore her hair was as uncharacteristic as the two of them. She looked like an emotional teen about five seconds away from declaring everything to be ‘whatever’.

“I need Eugene to get back in the Great Hall and set up his little one-man-show. Scowly Crowly’s making a fuss about one of the antechamber doors being blocked up by your fog machine. Or whatever.” There it was. Rapunzel hiked a thumb over her shoulder pointed behind her and gave a one armed push on Cassandra’s head. The probationary checkpoint officer tumbled backwards onto her bum.

“Oh, geeze, are you alright, Cass?” Eugene crouched to help Cassandra up but Rapnunzel extended her hand to her Lady-in-Waiting instead.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, Cass. It’s this stupid potion, I don’t mean to be so crabby.” Cassandra took Rapunzel’s hand and pulled herself into a standing position. “It’s just I can’t _believe_ Pascal and Max did this to us! Ugh!” While Rapunzel was subject to the same emotional upheaval Eugene and Cassandra were experiencing, it seemed replacing frivolity and altruism with seriousness and a self-centered drive didn’t change how hypercompetent she already was.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Sunshine. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t feel right to go out there in front of all those important people and take all the spotlight. It’s ridiculous that I’ve still _got_ the fog machine and that confetti cannon.” Eugene shuddered and rubbed his head where he had banged it against the fog machine earlier. “It’s not only disrespectful, it’s also way too dangerous.”

“Suck it up, Fitzherbert!” Rapunzel had a finger pointed very threateningly at Eugene before he or Cassandra even noticed. “This thing is important and we’ve just got to hold out until Pascal and Max come back with the counter potion. So just suck it up and stop being such a whiner.”

“Oh, Raps, you shouldn’t be so harsh with Eugene. You know what they say, ‘you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar’!” Cassandra had picked up her helmet and was shining it with the same rag she had used on Stan and Pete earlier.

“You _don’t_ attract more flies with honey than vinegar, that’s a stupid old wive’s tale. Flies prefer the acidity of vinegar much more than honey, and why would you even want to attract flies in the first place?” Eugene concluded Rapunzel must have read that in one of her many, many books because he certainly didn’t know that about flies. He’d always just believed the old wive's tale.

“It’s just a saying, Raps! We just got to stay optimistic and Max and Pascal will come galloping in with the counter potion any minute now.” Cassandra put the helmet on and gave a big, cheerful smile.

“Agh… I know, I know. I’m going to go to the main courtyard to greet the visitors with my parents. You guys just get to wherever you're supposed to be and if either of you see Pascal and Max first, you find the other two immediately, got that?” Rapunzel’s seriousness was punctuated by the way she straightened her back and cracked her neck. It was a thuggish display Eugene had never seen Rapunzel do before.

“Right. I guess I’ll go inside.” Eugene said, straightening his shoulders to give the same appearance of confidence Rapunzel had, but quickly letting them slump again. It was just too much pressure.

“Okey dokey, Raps! You can count on us.” Eugene saw Cassandra gave a salute that was likely not up to military standards before he walked past the two to reenter the castle.

“And there had better not be any more hugging!” Eugene stopped in his tracks at Rapunzel’s words, his hand frozen reaching for the patio door’s doorknob. At that moment he realized he had felt anxiety before: whenever he was caught by the law without any contingency plan or an idea to bluff his way out of the situation. It was when he couldn't find a way to explain how what he had done wasn't _wrong_.

She must have seen their embrace.

“Blondie, it’s, it's not what you think,” Eugene already began as he turned on his heel.

“C’mon, just one more?” Rapunzel had her hand on Cassandra’s forehead again, holding her back with a stiff arm while the want-to-be guardswoman struggled to get within hugging distance. “You love hugs! I know you want one.”

“Not anymore I don’t! Cassandra, stop it! I said there had better not be any more _hugging_!” Rapunzel's reprimand wasn't about the earlier embrace.

Oh thank goodness.

Rapunzel seemed to be legitimately struggling to hold Cassandra back. Rapunzel had a deceptive amount of strength acquired from hoisting seventy feet of magical hair for eighteen years, but Cassandra had trained every day for just as long to be one of the top fighters in the seven kingdoms.

Eugene watched as Cassandra’s training won the battle and she ducked at an angle that allowed her to close the distance and wrap her arms around the Princess’s waist, hoisting her into the air with how strong the hug was.

“See? You can’t say you don’t feel better after being held by someone who cares about you!” Cassandra let Rapunzel back to her bare feet, but did not relent on her hug.

“Cass, you are wrinkling my dress. Let me _go_!” At this Eugene thought it better to make his exit before any more bodily acts of goodwill were spread his way. He had received enough physical affection today, and from Cassandra of all people.

That unusual feeling of anxiety came back when he thought about how much he had enjoyed their embrace.

That anxiety grew even worse when he thought about how much _Cassandra_ seemed to have enjoyed their embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long! It was really tough writing my favorite characters in the exact opposite manner they would normally act! But it's the longest chapter yet and it did allow me to talk about breastplates, so I think it's all balanced out.
> 
> I went full on romance novel here, something I've really been avoiding doing. But I think it's getting to be that time, especially with the season finale coming up. I think I'll try to finish this season with a nice, easily divisible 16 chapters. So we're rapidly approaching the endgame here.
> 
> Once again, I appreciate any and all feedback. Comments and critiques, commendations and condemnations, kudos and… not leaving a kudos I guess? Anyways, I hope I brought you all joy, see you next time!


	14. Seventy Feet of Hair in Less Than an Inch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Living in Service. What She Always Does. Tardiness and Inappropriate Questioning. Automatic Motions, Instinctual Motions, and the Difference Thereof. Less Than an Inch. Happy Birfday! Two Girls Being Too Honest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The morning between "The Quest for Varian" & "The Alchemist Returns"

Cassandra knew that secrets were part of military life.

When it was revealed that the masked men that had chased Rapunzel, Eugene, and herself from Old Corona to Rapunzel’s old home were led by her father, she didn’t question it. She knew the answer she’d get if she did: orders from the King, need to know basis, security of the mission. 

Besides, she had kept her knowledge of the Black Rocks from her father and at the King’s orders her father had kept his knowledge of the Black Rocks from her. She could not fault him for living up to his duties.

Duty was what her life was based on. As soon as she had been old enough to be trusted by the castle staff she had been dutifully serving the Royal Family. She had trained to be a Lady-in-Waiting her whole life, all while also not-so-secretly training to be a future member, and theoretically captain, of the guards. She lived her life in service, and she’d learned to not question those giving the orders.

So she knew that sometimes that meant doing things she may not want to do. This wasn’t the first time her father had been sent on an assignment he probably didn’t agree with.

Of course, she couldn't be certain her father didn’t actually agree with leading a team of highly skilled and dangerous men in chasing down his own daughter.

This uncertainty weighed heavily on Cassandra’s mind. She could confront her father about it, air out her grievances, and discuss how this betrayal of trust would affect their relationship. Or Cassandra could do what she always did when she was truly troubled by something.

Avoid it.

She wasn’t so drastic as to modify her schedule to avoid her father, or duck out of sight when she spotted him, but she made no effort to actively seek him out either. Her regular duties as part of the castle staff meant she didn’t necessarily have to run into him often anyways. She’d just put on her blue dress, tie her bonnet on, and busy herself in the castle proper.

“Ooh, ooh, Cassandra! Wait up!”

She stopped almost at the stairs out of the barracks and turned around. It was Stan, jogging to catch up to her. “ _Yes_ , Stan?” She tried to make it clear by her tone of voice that she wasn't quite in the mood for pleasantries.

“Have you seen Pete?” the mustached guard asked, seemingly oblivious to the sharpness in her voice.

Cassandra held her hands out to indicate her attire. “Does it _look_ like I know where your other half is?”

“Oh, right.” Stan stroked his mustache and looked to the side like this was a big mystery. “He’s not usually this late, I hope nothing’s happened to him.”

Cassandra made one of her signature eye rolls. “Pete’s allowed to be a little late every now and then. He probably just lost track of time, he’d get sidetracked by someone offering free cookies.” This may be too harsh of an assessment of the skinny guard, but not by much. Pete was the kind of guard who would never take a bribe, if only because he was too nice to think people giving him free things would have any ulterior motives.

“Yeah, well, the Captain left me in charge while he took some of our best men on some secret assignment last night, so I couldn’t see Pete off when he got off shift. But you’re probably right and I”m worrying over nothing.” Stan shrugged and visibly relaxed. He took one step to walk away before he turned back to Cassandra and leaned in conspiratorially.

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to know what your dad was up to last night, would you? I can keep a secret. It _sounded_ like some kind of big deal!” This was exactly the kind of question that Cassandra didn’t want to think about today.

She grit her teeth and gave the fake smile she made when she had to hide her true self when she was with anyone who wasn’t Rapunzel. Or Eugene, come to think of it.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself, _Stan_ ? Whatever he was doing, I’m sure he was just _doing his duty_.” This time Stan definitely picked up on the sharpness of her tone.

“Ah, ahem, of course. Sorry. That was totally inappropriate.” Stan’s relaxation went away and he pulled off an unnecessary salute; he technically outranked her but everyone knew her position as Captain’s Daughter outranked them all. Oftentimes it outranked even the Captain himself.

“I’ll return to my duties now, ma’am. You have a lovely day.” Stan crisply turned on his heel and marched back down the hall.

Cassandra let a smug smile take purchase on her face. Giving Stan a hard time had improved her mood; let her blow off some steam. She climbed the stairs to the castle proper more relaxed, content in knowing that, at least in some cases, she could still call the shots.

That didn’t mean she felt anymore inclined to confront her father any time soon, though.

It was a short and familiar walk to Rapunzel’s room. She was a Lady-in-Waiting and right now, after last night, Cassandra knew her Lady needed to be Waited upon. “Hey, Raps?” Cassandra said as she gently opened the princess’s door. “Mind if I come in?” Rapunzel was standing at her balcony, leaning on the railing and looking out over the castle city. She apparently hadn’t heard Cassandra’s entrance.

“Raps? You alright?” Cassandra tried again, louder this time. This seemed to snap Rapunzel out of her reverie and gain her attention.

“Oh, Cass! Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in,” the princess said in a shocked voice.

“Yeah, it’s the shoes. You’re not supposed to really hear me coming,” she said with a wry smile. In an attempt to inject some cheer into the somber room, Cassandra hiked up her dress slightly and tapped the floor twice with her foot. There was barely a soft thud. “See? Quiet as a mouse.”

Rapunzel didn’t even react.

Cassandra knew she wasn’t one for making those kind of cutesy jokes, but she had hoped even her clumsy attempt would get a smile out of her best friend. She gave a concerned look at Pascal sitting on the railing. Silently she used her eyebrows to point at the princess, asking his assessment of Rapunzel's mood. The chameleon shook his head and looked exasperated: not a good sign.

“I guess you wouldn’t know much about shoes, huh?” Cassandra tried as she walked onto the balcony to stand with the perpetually barefoot princess. They stood there quietly for a while, looking out over the kingdom, not saying anything to each other.

Eventually Cassandra broke the silence.“How’re you holding up?”

“My dad knows something, Cass,” Rapunzel’s grip tightened on the railing, “something important. He keeps saying that ‘I’m not ready’ to know what’s going on, but he refuses to acknowledge that I’m connected to it.” The princess turned to Cassandra, tilting her head and pulling the braiding out to let her hair fall free.

Rapunzel hefted a length, holding it between herself and Cassandra and shaking it gently. “Corona is in danger and I can feel it. I can actually _feel_ it.” If Rapunzel’s hair was as dramatic as she sounded right now, Cassandra thought now would be the time for it to glow ominously in connection to Black Rocks. Thankfully it wasn’t and it didn't, sparing her friend further hysterics.

“Maybe the King is just trying to keep you safe?” Cassandra hesitated, knowing immediately it was the wrong thing to say.

“Keep me safe!?” Rapunzel turned on her heel and stormed back into her room, her golden hair dragging behind her. “Everyone keeps treating me like I’m some glass doll that’ll shatter at a moment’s notice. I’m not the same, naive girl I was when I left The Tower. Think of all the things I’ve done. The things _we’ve_ done! I don’t need people trying to protect me all the time!” She was pacing in anger now.

Cassandra stooped to pick up the train of hair still on the balcony, hiking her shoulder at Pascal. The lizard hopped on and made a high pitched trill. "You've done enough," she whispered to him, "tag me in and I'll try talking to her." She held out her hand. The chameleon nodded his support and gave her hand a tiny slap.

Standing back up the two followed the princess back into her room and Cassandra picked up the conversation from before. “I’m sorry, Raps. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, the King has _got_ to have a good reason to be doing things this way.” She continued to gather the hair in her arms as she followed Rapunzel.

“Whatever that reason is, it can’t be good enough to hide things about the Black Rocks from me.” Cassandra had to follow the princess in her pacing to ensure Rapunzel didn’t let herself get Tangled in her own hair.

“Raps, calm down, please. At least please stop pacing.” Even Pascal was getting dizzy from the repeated circles; his eyes rolled and he slid from Cassandra’s shoulder down a slope of golden hair.

“Oh,” Rapunzel said, taking a deep breath, “I’m so sorry, Pascal.” She picked him up from where he lay and the chameleon gave a comforted squeak. Rapunzel walked to her bedside with quick little steps and set him down on a pillow. He curled into a little ball and looked at Cassandra as if to say he was leaving the rest to her.

Cassandra returned her attention to the frustrated princess as she bent over to pick up some of her hair. “All of this just gets me so worked up. I mean, how can you be so calm, Cass? Don’t you remember it was your _dad_ that chased us last night?” The pair moved to a plush bench that had found its way to the foot of Rapunzel’s bed. Eugene must have been rearranging the furniture again.

“Of course I remember, Raps, how could I forget?” The two didn’t need to consciously think about their actions as they sat down. Rapunzel naturally turned her body to the side and held one of the many brushes scattered around the room over her shoulder. Cassandra took it and began re-braiding Rapunzel’s hair without even looking. At this point in their lives, acts like this were muscle memory for them.

“My dad was just following orders, he didn’t mean us any harm.” Cassandra reeled the hair in as she began the braiding. Back on the bed she heard the sound of a tiny yawn from a tiny chameleon.

“Didn’t mean us any harm?” Rapunzel’s body instinctively moved as she handed Cassandra more hair over her shoulder. “He threw you across the room! I was so scared you were really hurt.” Her voice rose protectively. As part of the braiding process Rapunzel didn’t turn her head, but Cassandra didn’t need to see her face to know how worried she was.

Normally Cassandra didn’t like it when her Lady felt so upset, but this time it gave Cassandra a warm feeling in her chest.

“Sure he was a bit rough, but if my dad really wanted, he could have made things a lot worse.” With no input from her brain at all Cassandra’s hands moved on their own. Fold, brush, fold, brush, double fold, twist, tie down with band. Rather than pull more hair towards her, she moved forward on the bench closer to Rapunzel.

“Yeah? Well if it _had_ been a lot worse, I don’t know what I would have done.” The princess punched her right fist into the palm of her left hand even as she subconsciously shifted backwards and tilted her head for Cassandra to reach hair from another angle.

Cassandra chuckled a bit, tying a band on another section of the magical hair and scooting closer to Rapunzel still. “Well, you blew up a tower when I _wasn’t_ that hurt, so I’d hate to imagine what you would have done if you thought I was in _real_ danger.”

Cassandra felt Rapunzel tense as she finished the braiding. Ugh, it had probably not been a smart idea to bring up what Rapunzel had done to her childhood home.

“… something truly horrible…” was all Cassandra could make out from Rapunzel’s almost whispered response.

“I’m sorry, Raps. That… it wasn't horrible, I didn’t mean-” she was cut off by Rapunzel suddenly turning to face her.

“If something worse happened to you I would’ve done something _truly_ horrible! I don’t think I’d be able to… control myself…” Rapunzel’s words trailed off.

It must have been during the braiding. Cassandra hadn’t noticed, and based on Rapunzel’s expression she hadn’t either, but they were sitting side by side now. The way Rapunzel had turned herself to face Cassandra placed her face directly in front of Cassandra’s and caused a half-dozen thoughts to rush through the Lady-in-Waiting’s mind at once.

Their faces were less than an inch apart.

When had they moved so close to each other?

Cassandra could feel Rapunzel’s thigh against her own.

Why was her heart beating so fast?

Rapunzel _wasn’t moving_.

 _Why_ wasn’t Rapunzel moving?

A final thought struck her like an arrow: because Cassandra had been brushing Rapunzel's hair when she turned around, Cassandra’s hand now rested gently on the back of Rapunzel’s head.

All Cassandra would have to do was pull Rapunzel closer and…

Just a little bit of pressure would bring their faces together and…

This could be the moment when what had been truly troubling her for weeks, months even, could be resolved and…

Cassandra stood up abruptly and took several steps away from Rapunzel. She dropped the brush, it's clinking on the floor the only sound in the loud silence that suddenly existed between them.

She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t even _look_ at Rapunzel right now. She crossed her arms in front of her, holding onto each elbow. All Cassandra could think to do was what she always did when she was truly troubled by something.

“Cass, you really mean a lot to me, you don't need to be--” Rapunzel started.

A knock on the door interrupted whatever Rapunzel had been trying to say. Cassandra’s head snapped in its direction and she crossed the distance in three swift strides. With significantly more force than necessary she threw the door open to reveal Eugene with his hand up, ready to knock again on a door that was no longer there.

“Oh, hey Cass!” Eugene said far too cheerfully for how Cassandra felt. “Just thought I’d come check on Rapunzel. And I suppose I should check on you, too, but I’m guessing a woman who’s got a rock where her heart should be would barely register a little bit of life threatening danger, huh?”

He poked her in the chest with a single finger and a goofy smile on his face. She actually stumbled backwards a bit, evidence that in her current state she could be knocked over with a feather. Eugene was either oblivious to the mood, thought his little poke was simply part of their usual playful banter, or worst of all, didn't care.

“Out of my way, Fitzherbert!” The woman who had confusion, anxiety, and pain where her heart should be roughly pushed the man with a rock where his brain should be to the side and stormed down the hallway.

Behind her she heard Rapunzel call out to her. “Cass!”

“Wow, she must be in a _great_ mood! She didn’t even try to stab me once.” Eugene quipped.

By then Cassandra turned the corner and for once was grateful for Eugene’s flippant, distracting behavior. He'd be a welcome distraction for Rapunzel, and messing with him would be a welcome distraction for herself later on.

She walked down the corridors of the castle without a destination in mind, taking random turns and various stairwells. A brisk walk would help clear her head.

First she had the uneasy situation with her father, and now whatever had just happened with Rapunzel. Not to mention whenever she saw Eugene she still occasionally remembered what she'd done during the whole mood potion incident.

It wasn’t that today was difficult or physically taxing; it was just that things were just so _awkward_ . She didn’t _do_ ‘awkward’.

What she needed was something to do that wasn’t so personal. Maybe Crowly had some linens or kitchenware that needed tending to. The only problem with that kind of work was how familiar she was with it. If it was another activity her hands could complete without assistance of her brain, it would leave her mind to wander. And right now she didn’t care to follow where her mind would lead her.

"Happy birfday milady," a nasally voice called out to her. She stopped in her tracks in surprise and confusion. It was definitely not her birthday. And certainly not her 'birfday' as the voice had said.

She turned and inspected the hallway behind her for whomever had incorrectly congratulated her.

Tall, ornate arches supported by carved marble pillars. A table to the side draped in a white table cloth beautifully displaying a porcelain bowl of wax fruit and candles. Pots of ferns providing a natural green to balance out the artificial red of the carpet. But no one who could have spoken to her.

"Thanks? But it's not my birthday," she responded. Maybe she could lure out the source of the voice by answering it's bizarre birthday well-wishes.

And it worked. From beneath the table cloth crawled out a beard with a very small, almost weasel-like creature attached to it. It rolled over forward and plopped onto it's back to reveal the perennially red nose of Shorty.

Cassandra didn't quite 'get' Shorty. She suspected no one did, least of all himself. He seemed to be in a constant state of inebriation, which was the polite way to say he was always flat out drunk. Sure, he was a regular of the Snuggly Duckling and was proud to be known as one of the Pub Thugs, but his level of consistent intoxication went well beyond his peers.

The most perplexing thing about the appropriately monikered man was his ability to simply _be_. That’s not to say his ability to be alive, although his alcohol consumption put that into question as well. No, it was his ability to find his way into any place and any location despite being a loud and smelly oaf.

“Shorty, how in blazes did you get in here?” Cassandra asked, approaching the drunkard and picking him up by the scruff of his collar and placed him in some hunched version of standing.

“I could ask you th’same thing! How’d you get inna my living room? I _always_ remember ta lock the door whenever I leave th’house!” Shorty leaned against the table he had crawled out from under, a table that was definitely not his house. Cassandra wasn’t sure he even had a home of his own.

“This is the castle, Shorty. This is the _fourth floor_ . And even if this was your house, why would I go to your living room for my birthday?” Logic wasn’t the best approach with Shorty, but there were few _other_ angles from which you’d want to approach him, and this one was the most hygienic.

“I do believe these delicious treats should answer yur question!” He reached above his head to the bowl of wax display fruit on the table, plucking a pear and ‘polished’ it on his shirt. Of course, anything rubbed against _that_ shirt wound up dirtier than it started.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and took too long to think of what he was doing, only able to say “Wait!" before the man took a large, crunchless bite out of the pear, "… that's not a real pear." She finished anyway.

“Hrmm, must’ve gone bad,” Shorty said, inspecting the decorative fruit before taking another bite out of it. It seemed he wasn’t going to stop eating something just because it wasn’t food.

“Shorty, how do you keep getting past the guards? I mean, they’ve got to notice your…” she waved her hand at his general direction in a vain attempt to find a trait she could name, “… ness.” She decided to go with a generalization.

“My dear fren here always lets me’n. He is _quite_ th’gentleman.” Shorty strolled over to the potted fern on the other side of the corridor, leaning against it like it was, indeed, a friend. “Here, you like ‘em a bit soft, don’tcha?” He tossed the pear into the pot and clapped his hands together to ‘clean’ them, but only succeeded in tossing up more of his personal dust cloud.

“B’sides, I asked th’lady in th’kitchen where th’keys were.” He hiked a thumb behind him, which wasn’t actually the direction of the kitchen.

“And she just told you?” Cassandra asked incredulously.

“Oh yeah, she also tol'me that if I was goin anywhere, I should take the'back stairs that she never cleans even though she tells ev'one she does.” He winked at Cassandra like he was letting her in on a big conspiracy.

“Uhuh, sure she did. And why, exactly, would she be sharing these kinds of secrets with you?” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“I dunno,” he shrugged and turned away from Cassandra, “But everyone’s been telling me all sortsa things today. Here, di'you know someone dropped a candle and burned th’floor?” Shorty dragged a large vase across the floor creating a noise similar to fingernails clawing at the inside of her skull.

But where the vase had previously stood _was_ a burn mark, just as Shorty had described. “This guard tol'me, but then I think he got sick cause he covered his mouth an' ran away.”

“When I say I can’t work on Thursdays cause I’m helping my mum in the shop, I’m actually going to the docks to look at the burly men loading cargo. Yeep!” Cassandra and Shorty turned down the hall at a pair of maids carrying linens and arguing at the other end of the corridor.

“You told me you hated those kinds of men!” said the second maid, clearly offended.

“That’s only because I didn’t want you to know I’m attracted to your brother,” blurted out the first maid. Her face read like she did _not_ want to share what she was saying.

The second maid’s eyes went large and she exclaimed a yelp that contained displeasure, disgust, and disapproval all in one syllable. She tossed her pile of linens at the first maid, nearly knocking her over, and stormed off around a corner.

“Wait! I’m sorry! I only like your brother for his looks, he’s way too much like you and I don’t need _another_ shallow person in my life!” The first maid looked like her own words were giving her pain and, after picking up a handful of freshly unfolded clothing, ran after the second maid. She left a trail of dropped shirts and pants behind her, caring more about catching up with her partner than their chores.

“Everyone’s being so nice today.” Shorty said, pulling a yam out of his beard and taking a bite out of it. At least it wasn’t one of the wax fruits. “Isn’t th’worlda mush better place when we’re all honest with ourselves?”

“Yeah… it would have been better if I had just been honest,” Cassandra said with surprise, thinking back on what had just happened with Rapunzel. Whatever… _that_ was, it was not her bring honest. Not with Rapunzel, and certainly not with herself.

How was it that despite everything about him, Shorty always stumbled onto something important? Maybe _that's_ what you're supposed to 'get' about Shorty. Of course, he also wasn't observant enough that Cassandra was certain he hadn't noticed how personal her response had been, so maybe not.

Cassandra tapped her foot and stroked her chin. “I think we should look into this.” She looked down at the diminutive drunkard and scrunched her lips in consideration. The man sneezed on his yam, sniffled, and then took a bite. “On second thought, how about you stay here and… prepare for my birthday party.”

Shorty looked up at her mid-chew with genuine surprise. “Is your birfday?! Congratulations!”

Cassandra just shook her head and held a hand palm up at him. “Just… just stay here.” She took off down the hall after the two maids. This was exactly the kind of activity she needed right now. This was a mystery she could investigate, a way to be helpful.

She didn't want to see two friends having a falling out over honesty and romance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> September 1st is moving day in my city, so for the week before, and the week after I was quite busy. But! My old, annoying roommate has moved out and my new roommate is a close friend of mine!
> 
> Unfortunately, because of this the chapter update was pushed back quite a bit. Once again, sincerest apologies for its delay.
> 
> There's a tightrope that I am walking here. On the one hand, I don't want to be too obvious. But on the other hand, I really, really want to! I know next season I'm going to really ramp it up, so I'm trying to established the status quo from which we will be starting next season with.
> 
> Two more chapters, and the following three episodes happen back to back with no space in between. It'll be tricky, but I'm hoping to give a satisfactory conclusion to this first season. Wish me luck!
> 
> As always, let me know what you thought of this chapter. Was I too subtle? Should I have gone further? What's the deal with Shorty? Please let me know!


	15. Not Yet Ready As We’ll Ever Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Life of a Kingdom. A Boy, a Purple Gem, and the Memories Of. Soft, Injured, Competent Men. No Time for Idiocy. Small, Weak, Vulnerable, Love, and the Feelings Of. The Weight of an Axe. An Empty Room and a Familiar Smell. A Painting from Chameleon Love. Making Sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the song "Ready As I'll Ever Be"
> 
> As much as I love, love, love the music and singing in the show, music that rightfully won an Emmy I must remind you, I haven't included it in my writing. Nonetheless, I left a single ambiguous paragraph that could be interpreted as where the singing was, and then continued my story around it.

Cassandra readied for the fight of her life.

The fight of the entire kingdom’s life, really. And to make matters worse, no one had any idea what the fight was going to be against.

Cassandra sat in her room sharpening her sword, lost in her own thoughts. Much of the room she had packed up earlier this same day, but right now all she just needed her sword and a whetstone. Her eyes were locked on her own reflection in the blade, but her mind was far elsewhere.

Varian, the fourteen year old boy she’d met almost a year ago, had somehow become the biggest threat Corona had faced in over a century. The fact that he seemed to be a super genius with a penchant for alchemy and machinery was a primary factor, but it had been his craftiness that made him deadly.

“Thanks, Cassie, this really means a lot to me,” Varian had said on the afternoon of the Science Expo. The two were just finishing cleaning up what remained of his… machine. Some sort of transmorgifier or combininator. Cassandra didn’t remember anymore.

“Ah, don’t mention it. All of this is kind of my fault, too. Besides, cleaning up the messes you make are what friends are for.” She ruffled his hair as they carried the machinery down to a cart, and the young boy blushed at her. He so clearly had a crush on her; it was cute really. But despite them being almost a decade apart in age, she didn’t see any harm in indulging his youthful attraction.

“So you’re saying we’re friends?” It was a question only a fourteen year old would ask and made Cassandra laugh out loud.

“Of course we’re friends, Varian. After all this,” she hefted the pile of junk she was carrying, “I’d definitely say we’re friends. Besides, I wouldn’t accept a gift like this from just anyone.” She briefly held the Cassandrium he had fashioned into a necklace for her. The boy beamed with pride.

“Well then, _friend_. Maybe after we load all this into my cart you’d like to accompany me in getting a bite to eat?” It took all of Cassandra’s effort to not smirk at the newfound confidence Varian exhibited in asking her that. Before she had seen how earnest and kind he was that day, she’d have met his brazen invitation with a harsh look. Instead she met it with a warm smile.

“Maybe next time, Varian. I’ve got a lot of stuff back at the castle to deal with once we finish up here.” Varian looked crestfallen, but he clearly understood.

“Right, your dad’s probably pretty upset about the whole Master St. Croix thing, huh?” This was the kind of clever maturity that made Varian seem so much older than he was.

“Actually, ‘my dad’ has no problem. But ‘The Captain’ is going to want to have some words with me.” Before Varian’s yo-yo of emotions could bounce again, Cassandra quickly interjected. “But don’t worry. It’s totally worth it.”

“Anyways,” she continued, “I promise, the next time you need help I’ll be there. I’m not gonna let my Co-Lady-in-Waiting down.” She remembered making that promise to him with a wink and seeing his eyes light up with excitement.

But it was a promise that was broken time and time again.

Varian just wanted somebody to help him. His boilers, his science experiment, during the blizzard, and now whatever this was about. And every time he had been told no. The boilers were too dangerous, she couldn’t be his assistant after all, Rapunzel sent him away during the storm. The only time he actually got help… well by then it was too late.

Cassandra put her whetstone down momentarily and looked at herself in her sword’s new sheen. The her in the reflection looked disappointed. She flipped the blade over, but the reflection was still there. Using a small cup to scoop water from a bucket, she drizzled water onto this unsharpened side and returned to using the whetstone again.

Rapunzel helped him steal the remains of the Sun Drop, the magical flower that had given Rapunzel her golden, magical hair. She wanted to call Rapunzel naive for trusting him at that point, but Cassandra’s own guilt reminded her that after neglecting him so many times she probably would have helped him, too.

After escaping he somehow sent a giant machine called an ‘automaton’ after Rapunzel in the castle. How he got the machine into the castle was beyond Cassandra; she was certain someone would have noticed a ten foot monstrosity coming in the front door. Or any door, really. But Varian had done it.

Thankfully Cassandra, Eugene, and Rapunzel had succeeded in defeating the machine before it could do any real damage. The Lady-in-Waiting smirked to herself at the memory of the Eugene-shaped indent in the wall where the automaton had sent him flying. The smirk disappeared when she remembered its defeat, too, had been all part of Varian’s plan.

It’s attack caused the King’s overprotective paranoia to ironically lock Rapunzel in the castle tower and increase the guard duty around her, pulling guards from other duties around the castle. Duties such as protecting the Queen.

Cassandra stood up, whipping her sword to the side to flick the water and metal shavings off it. She looked at the edge, content on its condition, and sheathed it on her back. Before exiting her chambers she gave herself a check in her mirror. She needed to look ready for what she had to do next. In the reflection, though, she saw a purple gleam on the small table she used as her vanity.

“The Cassandrium,” she whispered to herself, turning to look at the purple gem on a chain. She walked over to the small table, picking it up and twirling it in her fingers. “I’m sorry, kid.”

She opened a drawer on the vanity and shoved the gem in, quickly slamming the drawer shut like the artificial rock could possibly explode. “It’s too late, now.”

Deep down, she wasn’t sure if she meant it was too late to forgive Varian for his actions, or too late to be forgiven for the lack of hers. Either way, it was too late, and Cassandra didn’t have the time to dwell on it. She left her room, and the Cassandrium, behind.

Varian kidnapped the Queen. He’d distracted everyone in the courtyard with a beast that stalked through fog and picked off guardsmen one by one, including her father. Turned out the monster was the raccoon Varian had been trying to capture when they had met so many months ago.

He apparently had succeeded in capturing it and was able to… transform it into the creature that had attacked them. Seems he could add the title of Abberationist to Alchemist and Mechanist. Cassandra was beginning to think his claims of _not_ being a wizard were complete lies.

She arrived at the door to the barracks staging room and took a deep breath. She straightened her back and reached for the door, hesitating with her fingers on the handle. When she walked through this door, everything would change. Her mind rushed back to earlier that evening when she’d spoken to her father.

“You did good out there, Cassandra,” the Captain said with a wince. He had been laid on a bed placed in the middle of the staging room she was currently about to enter. Guardsmen all around them were running every which way carrying the wounded and supplies from the fight with the beast. Cassandra knelt beside her father, a wet towel in hand to clean her father’s injuries. The castle guards were certain their leader was safe in the care of not only his daughter, but a trained member of the castle staff.

“Dad, don’t talk, I think you might have some broken ribs,” the concerned daughter said, loosening the straps on his breastplate to alleviate the pressure. The shiny metal could deflect a sword strike and withstand a table leg used as a club, but in the face of a behemoth throwing its weight around? Well, if you’re hit with a big enough rock, it won’t matter how much armor you’re wearing.

“I know, hng, I know. That’s why I got to tell you this now.” He raised his arm and grasped at her hand, preventing her from stripping him of his armor.

“Dad. Don't be so dramatic, you’re not dying. It’s just a flesh wound. You’re not even bleeding, so it’s not even a wound.” This is what passed for levity between father and daughter: a macabre sense of humor. They both knew that not seeing blood from an injury was as good of a sign as not seeing fire when you smell smoke.

“Of course I’m not dying, Cassandra. Your old man’s not so weak that some overgrown raccoon can take me down.” He tried to push himself up, but Cassandra held him down. He shook his head and met her gaze. “I just want to say I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

A corner of Cassandra's lips rose and her eyes lidded with familial affection. "You already apologized, and I meant what I said after that: you can never disappoint me, dad." It was true, too. She may have been upset at him at the time, but he was the man who raised her. Though they were not related by blood, he _was_ her father.

There was no decision he could make, no action he could do, no secret he could reveal that could change her opinion of him.

“Yeah, well, you couldn’t disappoint me either. In fact, you made me proud out there. I saw how you handled yourself and the rest of the men after I went down. This assault the King’s got planned, if I do have a broken rib or two I’m in no condition to lead it. That’s why I’m putting you in command.” Cassandra’s whole body paused except her eyes, which blinked rapidly in confused surprise.

“Are you serious?” She began. “This is the biggest military action Corona’s taken in years, in my whole life. Are… are you sure I can be trusted with it?” Deep down Cassandra wanted this. She wanted this with all her being, but under these circumstances, with these stakes, with everyone relying on her? That she wasn’t so sure of.

“It’s _because_ this is the biggest thing we’ve had to face in years that I need you in command. Look around; two of my best officers know how to handle logistics and public relations, but they’re far from tactical geniuses.” He gestured with his chin in the direction of Stan & Pete. To their credit the thin man was directing the other guards’ resupplying with relative efficiency while his mustached partner coordinated care of the wounded with, well, care.

“Pete barely knows his left from his right, for crying out loud. We’re soft, Cassandra. We even have to rely on Rider to teach us how to deal with simple thieves these days. We need someone sharp, and I can’t think of anyone sharper than you.” The pride she saw in his smile poured into Cassandra.

“I dunno, the guy who taught me is pretty sharp, too.” Cassandra said with mock seriousness. She placed her other hand on her father’s, giving it a loving squeeze.

“Oh, of course,” he said with the same mocking tone, “he’s the sharpest there-- hng… the sharpest there is.” The Captain groaned and Cassandra moved to support him so he didn’t further exacerbate his injuries. “But right now… he needs to take a little rest.” He let his head fall back onto the table.

“Go, Cassandra. Get ready. I’m fine, here.” The Captain took his hand from Cassandra’s grasp and raised it towards Stan, the gesture calling him to send a member of the castle staff over.

Once again Cassandra’s father turned to her with a smile of pride and Cassandra stood. “I’ll make you proud, dad,” she hardened her face and drew herself to attention. “I’ll make you proud, sir!”

“‘Atta girl,” he responded, “now get ready soldier.”

That had been earlier. It had been probably more than an hour ago, but in her mind it had been only a couple of minutes. She had changed into fresh clothes, her sword was sharpened, and she had more knives than the castle kitchen strapped to various parts of her body.

She was ready as she’d ever be.

She opened the door.

What followed was the closest thing to a rallying speech she had ever given. The biggest command she’d overseen before now was a checkpoint, and she had definitely _not_ been herself for that. Now she was in command of _everyone_. Thankfully she somehow pulled off inspiring them. Maybe it was because Rapunzel’s many speeches had rubbed off on her, but the troops were rallied and the townspeople heartened. Even the Pub Thugs had been invigorated to fight for crown and country. That included Eugene.

“Hey, Cass, wait up,” the rogue called to her as she walked down the hall back to her room. She’d given everyone another hour to prepare and muster before they marched on Old Corona, and she intended to make as much use of that hour as she could.

“Make it fast, Fitzherbert. The Queen doesn’t have time for your idiocy tonight.” She didn’t ‘wait up’, forcing Eugene to jog in order to catch up with her.

“Yeah? Well neither do I,” he said, although he seemed to fail to grasp that this meant he was saying _he_ didn’t have time for _his own_ idiocy. He really was an idiot. “I just wanna say a few things.”

Now she waited. She stopped and turned on her heel to face the man, causing him to almost bowl her over. Instead, to support his abrupt halt, he stumbled forward and threw his arms into a hug around Cassandra’s shoulders.

What the heck?

What was he doing?

Why was he hugging her!?

Cassandra’s mind immediately returned to a few short weeks ago when the Griffin of Pittsford had visited. On the rear patio, against the railing. His arms around her, her head in the crook of his neck. She had returned his embrace then. She had _instigated_ the embrace. She wrapped her arms around his waist just like her arms were around him now.

Wait, how had her arms gotten there?

Cassandra pushed the rogue away, breaking their embrace. He visibly took a step back from her and ran his hand through his annoyingly perfect hair. “Ugh. Why did you-- what do you-- what!?” She stumbled over her words, remembering only at the end to look him in the eyes.

“Yeah, um…” He seemed just as befuddled as she was. Good. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to talk?” It was more of a question than a statement. “You were pretty enthusiastic back in there, but, uh… this assault--”

Before Eugene could fluster further through whatever he was trying to say, a column of guards began to march down the corridor. In the spur of the moment she grabbed Eugene by the wrist and pulled him down the corridor.

“Hey, what gives?” he was tripping over his own feet to keep up. She was probably pulling his arm too hard, but that was his problem, not hers. She came upon the door to her room, throwing it open and Eugene inside. She followed and pulled the door shut behind her, leaning her back against it.

“OK, now talk,” she ordered him. He was sitting on the chest at the foot of her bed with hands resting behind him like he had been thrown there in panic. Which she actually had done.

Wait a second. Why? What was the point of ducking into her room like this? There was no reason for her to feel embarrassed by some guards finding her talking to him out in the corridor. She was acting like some teenager whose father was about to catch her talking to the boy she liked.

Eugene looked up at her, craning his neck and cocking an eyebrow. He must be as confused as she was by her actions. “What was that about?”

Ugh, he just had to ask. “Never mind that. You’re the one who said you wanted to talk.”

“Uhm, yeah. This assault. It’s kind of a big deal, ya’know? You sure you’re up to it? I mean, _I'm_ happy you’re the one leading this thing. No offense to your dad but he’s not exactly got the smarts to match wits with Varian here, but I’m not saying _you_ do, either. The kid’s running circles around all of us.” She could tell Eugene was trying not to be insulting here, and what he was saying was true, but he was still aggravating. It was something about the way he talked.

Cassandra scoffed. “Running circles around you, maybe.” She realized she was still leaning against the door and pushed off, only to stand in the middle of her room and realize she didn’t exactly have many comfy places to sit. She could grab a stool, but squatting on a stool to talk to him felt demeaning. She settled on standing where she was, leaning towards one leg and crossing her arms at him.

“C’mon, Cass. You can’t seriously think Varian isn’t going to see right through this decoy Rapunzel thing. Blondie made Shorty her body double. _Shorty_!” He threw his hands out and downward in reference to the drunkard’s height. Cassandra sighed.

“Yeah. Well, you’ve got a point.” For however clever Rapunzel was, this was definitely not one of her brightest ideas. “But it’s the only plan we’ve got, and we just need to keep Varian busy long enough for Rapunzel and the King to sneak into his lab and rescue the Queen.”

“That’s the other thing. _Who_ exactly are we keeping busy? Do you really think Varian’s going to be standing on his front steps waiting to fight us? No, he’s going to be wearing that _creepy_ mask of his with that _creepy_ echoey voice thing, and there’ll be smoke and traps and we won’t know where the heck he is until it’s too late.” He’d done a pretty good job so far of playing it cool, but Cassandra could see that facade begin to slip. Looked like Eugene was just as angry at Varian as she was.

“The kid doesn’t exactly have that many friends, and he definitely doesn’t have any that’d fight their own kingdom. If he’s made any new friends it’s because he actually _made_ them. I mean, what if he’s got another one of those automatons? We barely beat that last one, and that was only ‘cause you jammed it’s music box and we threw it out a window.” Eugene was rubbing the back of his head and Cassandra couldn’t help but grin again at the memory of Eugene being tossed around like a sack of flour.

“So we’ll jam it’s music box and find another window to throw it out of.” Cassandra gave a shrug and a smirk, but her own facade of confidence was betrayed by her eyes. She turned her head to the side in an attempt to hide that doubt.

“Cass, I’m being serious here.” Eugene stood from his seat looking frustrated; a bit of normalcy to their relationship that calmed Cassandra down a bit. If she could still mess with him, then she felt a little more in control of things.

“Well that’s got to be a first for you, don’t hurt yourself.” Cassandra turned her head back to Eugene intent on dropping a snarky look at him but was stopped by how close he suddenly was.

Cassandra didn’t expect him to hold her by the shoulders, drawing her attention directly at him. He had a serious look in his eyes that was the opposite to his normal smarmy attitude. “For crying out loud, Cass! I don’t want _you_ to hurt yourself!” He said.

That feeling of control, of conviction she had been reclaiming snuffed out like a candle with all the air sucked out of the room. And that’s exactly how Cassandra suddenly felt: like she had no air anymore. Subconsciously she held her breath as she uncrossed her arms and adjusted her stance. Her smirk disappeared and her eyes grew wide.

“You’re going to be right in the front of this whole thing. Whatever traps the kid’s got, you’ll be the first one stepping into them. You’re the strongest, toughest woman I know, and I’ve known a bunch of tough ladies, but even _you’ve_ got to be careful of what’s coming next. I want, no, I _need_ you to have your head on straight, cause if something happens to you… I dunno. I might end up doing something horrible.” Cassandra let go of the breath she didn’t notice she was holding and tried to look away from him. For some reason, though, she couldn’t turn away from those big brown eyes filled with concern.

She’d never had someone look at her like this before. Sure, Rapunzel would worry about her all the time, but because it was usually Cassandra feeling worried about Rapunzel, those concerned looks felt inherently different. _This_ look, Eugene’s expression holding her gaze like a steel grip and not letting go, made Cassandra feel so mall. It made her feel small and weak and vulnerable.

And it made her feel loved.

“Eugene…” she said, her voice much softer and filled with more surprise than she had intended. A million questions ran through her head, all of them starting with either ‘why’ or ‘what’ and her hands moved on their own while she considered them. Only when she was finally able to look away from his eyes did she notice her hands had found their way to rest on his chest.

Regaining what little composure she had she took control of her hands again and grasped the front of his vest in her fists. “Are you _damaged_ , Fitzherbert?” Cassandra, almost lifting him up, took the man by his lapels and threw him backwards, causing him to stumble over her bed’s foot chest and onto the bed itself.

Great, seeing him tumbled back onto her bed like that made _another_ million questions run through her head, and this time she didn’t want to give _any_ of them a chance to perch in her mind. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to either side of her head. Marching over to her war-drobe full of weaponry she reached out at random. Finally opening her eyes Cassandra found herself holding a large, double-sided axe. Perfect.

“Have my head on straight? Do you really think I _don’t_ have my head on straight for all this? This is the most focused I’ve ever been in my whole life! Everyone will finally see I’m being wasted sewing stupid dresses. My dad, everyone in the Royal Guard, even the King _himself_ are finally seeing me as something other than a Lady-in-Waiting. _This_ is my big chance, and I’m not some naïve princess in a tower that needs protecting, Eugene.” She turned to him on her bed, using the weight of the axe in her hands to push down the thoughts of the many thingshe could do to him in this position.

“Whoa now, Cassandra,” Eugene said her name properly and slowly, “let’s not do anything we might regret here…” he looked terrified, holding his hands palm-outward to show he meant no harm. Now he was the one looking vulnerable.

His words shocked her. “Do anything we might regret!?” Her voice cracked in embarrassment as all the things she might regret doing to him flashed through her mind. Why was he making her _imagine_ so many _things_? Cassandra’s eyes grew big and her face turned red with… well, she decided it was rage.

“Get out.” She hefted the axe in her hands. “ _Now_.”

“Right, right, I’ll get out of your hair!” Eugene said, rolling himself off of Cassandra’s bed and scrambling to his feet. He brushed himself off and straightened his back. Whatever care, whatever concern he had for her on his face before was gone. In its place was a confused anger that was wholly justified. He strode across the room to the door, opening it but turning back to look at her.

“You know, just when I think I could start to like you, I’m reminded why I can’t stand you.” He said angrily, shaking his head and slamming the door behind him as he left. Cassandra lifted the axe above her head and threw it at the closed door. The blade dug into the wood with such force that the handle vibrated.

She was breathing heavily now, her eyes beginning to water. She stood there for a while, legs locked and fists clenched. When her heaving began to grow worse she turned to the mirror in her room. The her in the mirror wasn’t filled with rage.

She was crying.

“No,” she said hoarsely and between sobs. “Stop that.” She brought a sleeve up to her eyes, forcefully rubbing the tears from her face. Trying to take a deep breath through her nose, she found it stuffed and the deep breath became an awkward sniffle. “I said _stop that_!” she shouted at the her in the mirror.

She awkwardly made her way to the wash basin in the corner of the room only to find the basin and the pitcher empty. Right, she was supposed to have been leaving for a convent today and had cleaned up, including disposing of any water she could use to wash her face with. Wiping away more tears from her face, her gaze searched the room for anything she could use to clean up.

She spotted the whetstone and the bucket of water she had been using to sharpen her blade before. In a flash she was next to the bucket on her knees, scooping water out with her hands and splashing her face. It didn’t matter that the water wasn’t too clean; it wasn’t too dirty and it would do the job.

“What’s going on inside that pea-brained head of his?” she asked herself, now able to take that deep breath she needed. “Saying that I’m not prepared for this assault. He’s the one not prepared for this assault, spending time thinking about…”

Her voice trailed off. He hadn’t been saying that, had he? He was trying to tell her to be careful not because she could get hurt, but because if she got hurt, _he’d_ be hurt. Did he still think that? Or did her outburst wipe that away? Maybe he’d cool off on the ride to Old Corona, and they could talk about it after the battle. If they both survived the battle.

“This is too much. I don’t have time to think about… about whatever this is about.” Cassandra shoved her fluttering feelings into a box and shoved the box into a corner of her mind. “I’ll deal with it after the fight,” she said, subconsciously knowing she wouldn’t.

She stood up, hands wiping the water from her face and running through her perpetually unruly hair. It remained unruly. Walking to the door, the axe caught her attention. She flicked the handle with a finger. It vibrated nicely. “Good throw,” she complimented herself, tugging the heavy axe out of the wood on her third try and hanging it on a spare hook by the door.

Cassandra had no idea how much time that inconvenient sidetrack had taken her, but the assault wouldn’t leave without her. She had as much time as she needed, and she didn’t need much for what she wanted to do.

“Please tell me she hasn’t left yet,” she huffed as she climbed stairs two at a time to reach Rapunzel’s room. The Princess’s part of the plan would require her to go through Herz de Sonne’s tunnels and Cassandra never learned their paths. She wasn’t sure if Rapunzel would need to leave before the main forces or if she had time to spare, and Cassandra hoped for the latter.

“Raps, I really need to talk to you,” Cassandra said to an empty room as she threw open Rapunzel’s door.

“Curses.” Looked like Rapunzel had left already. Still, the room itself was a comfort. Somberly walking through the room to Rapunzel’s literally queen sized bed, Cassandra let herself plop face first onto the soft surface.

“What was I even planning to say to Rapunzel anyways?” she mumbled into the blanket.” I just… Ugh. I’d just feel so much better if we were together right now.” She buried her face deeper into the bed sheets, taking another deep breath to get her mind together. Instead she just inhaled the smell of Rapunzel.

Swinging her arms from her sides to in front of her, she used them to prop up her upper body. She scanned the room, looking at Rapunzel’s courtesy screen, the balcony, the corner of canvasses and paints. Cassandra tilted her head and squinted her eyes as something caught her attention in the dimly lit room.

She crawled off Rapunzel’s bed and went to the corner of art, pulling a canvas out that would have looked to an outsider like a random canvas among random canvases. Moving to the balcony to get better light, she held the completed painting up in both hands.

The painting featured Pascal sitting in front of a bouquet of flowers. Rapunzel held the bouquet, although awkwardly like the flowers had been painted after the bouquet which was very unlike Rapunzel. On one side of Rapunzel was Eugene, smiling and holding onto a rope while on Rapunzel's other side was herself, arm leaning on Rapunzel’s shoulder. They were in a balloon basket like the one the Saporian Seperatist Andrew had ridden.

Tentatively she raised her hand to the painting, running her fingers on the image of Rapunzel’s face. The dried paint was rough and uneven, but to Cassandra as she was now it was as comforting as stroking Rapunzel’s actual cheek.

“Please come home safe, Raps.” Cassandra realized the happy, smiling face of the Rapunzel in the painting was likely how Rapunzel would have responded in real life.

“Of course, Cass. I’ve got to save my home and family,” Rapunzel would probably say to her. Was Cassandra included in that ‘family’? She looked at the image of Eugene, his smile nothing like the smiles Cassandra knew from him. This was his smiles through Rapunzel’s eyes; loving and sincere. He would certainly be included in the ‘family’ category.

“You mean… so much to me, Raps. I just wish I knew what I meant to you.” She took a half finished painting of the city landscape off an easel and put the canvas she was holding onto it. Taking it all in, she looked at Rapunzel and Eugene, standing so affectionately close.

But she was there, too. She was leaning on Rapunzel with her arm on Rapunzel’s shoulder. Even though she could feel the affection between Eugene and Rapunzel, he wasn’t even touching her in the painting. But Cassandra was.

“You’re going to come home safe, Raps.” Cassandra looked out the glass doors of the balcony and towards the direction of Old Corona. “We all are.”

Cassandra punched her right hand into the palm of her left, curling her face into an expression of determination. “I’m gonna make sure of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh. I had trouble with this chapter. Not the usual kind of trouble, like walking the tightrope between overt flirtation and being too subtle. I always planned for the romance to ramp up in these final chapters, so I'm being a bit reckless in that. No, the trouble I had was in balancing just how _emotional_ I was going to portray Cassandra here.
> 
> If I had to describe each character's story arc, Cassandra's would be one of repressed feelings and a desire to be acknowledged. Her love language is words of affirmation and her primary conflict is internal. I had a version where Cassandra was too full of rage, and another where she was flippant and uncaring. Neither was where she was at this point in her character arc.
> 
> I love, love this chapter, though. This is the last chapter of this season that takes place during the season. The next chapter will take place after the battle, and I'm as excited to find out what happens as you are!


	16. How I Wish We Could Stay Here Forever This Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting for Her Life to Begin. Trash Traders and Drunkards. A Nice, Long Life Together. Caravan Negotiations. A Question Promised. The Lizard Wins Hide & Seek. Two Beauties in a Basket. How Hard Is It to Fix a Box? The Awkward Couple Reunites Awkwardly. Playful Punches. Dalliances in Immaturity. Understanding Rocks and How to Explain Them. The One, Long Instant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place a day after "Secret of the Sun Drop", the closing of Season 1

Rapunzel was waiting for her life to begin.

Once again, she was sitting at the window of her tower, staring out into the distance at the big, wide world that awaited her. Once again, she was impatiently waiting for when she could leave the walls she’d been living within and experience new and amazing things. The only difference this time was that she was no longer curled up with the being whom she cared for most in any world, encircled by walls or not.

Instead, Pascal was laying out on a portion of stone railing just a few feet away, a slowly extinguishing bit of coal providing him some residual warmth. The balcony of her room in the castle was significantly bigger than the small window the two had shared in The Tower, giving them space enough to be more comfortable in their own biologically different ways.

Not that they weren’t comfortable curling up together. Pascal and Rapunzel had been inseparable since she had brought him back from the brink of death all those years ago. Curling up with him was still her most natural sleeping position. It’s just that when she cuddled with her pet chameleon, it was really _him_ cuddling into _her_ , what with their differences in size.

This time, sitting in her tower and staring out into the distance at a big, wide world, Rapunzel was curled up with the _man_ whom she cared for most in any world.

“Sorry we couldn’t row out onto the water to watch the lanterns this year, sweetheart.” Eugene said softly into her ear. She just smirked and wriggled her body deeper into his arms.

“We still got to see them,” she said with a very tired sigh. They were sitting in a cozy loveseat Eugene had dragged onto the balcony for them. And “loveseat’ was truly an apt name as the couple, wrapped in a wonderfully soft blanket, snuggled together while watching the stars slowly glint into existence in the darkening night sky.

“That was a pretty slick trick your Royal Dad-ness pulled there. Can you imagine what it would have been like if all those lanterns launched if we’d _lost_ that fight? Varian would have us all captured with his automaton things and then a bunch of lanterns fly overhead?” Eugene wrapped his arm around Rapunzel and stroked his goatee. “Hmm. Actually, that might’ve pulled at the Kid’s heartstrings enough to get through to him.”

Rapunzel let a humored sigh escape her nose and extricated herself from his arms, rising to flick his forehead with her finger in admonishment. “Don’t even think such a thing.” Even though they had succeeded, Rapunzel had no interest in reliving the night even in the hypothetical, and certainly no interest in thinking about if they had lost.

“Fine, fine!” Eugene laughed and rubbed his forehead before pulling her back into an embrace beneath the blanket. “I just… I’ve got a soft spot for the kid, ya’know? He didn’t mean to… well, ok he totally _did_ mean to kidnap the Queen and send giant robots after the rest of us, but I can kinda understand where he’s coming from. Not the violence parts, I mean. The wanting to save his dad part.” While Eugene’s quick-thinking-but-sometimes-rambling mind appeared to be making light of their previous life-threatening situation, Rapunzel had learned to read the meanings between his words.

“When I was his age I had _just_ lost hope that my parents would ever come back for me. If there had been even a small sign that my dad might come back… I’m no genius like Varian is, but I’d have figured out a way to move mountains to get my family back.” Rapunzel looked up from where she had rested her head against him and saw in Eugene’s face that his thoughts were miles and miles away. She leaned up and kissed him to try to bring him back to the present.

The rogue blinked a few times like he really had just traveled miles and miles. “I don’t know why your parents never came back,” she began, “but I’m sure they cared about you very much. I bet they’d be so proud if they could see you know.”

Eugene chuckled and kissed Rapunzel back, a bit longer than the kiss she had given him. Her affectionate reassurance must have definitely improved his mood, and she didn’t mind the longer kiss herself. “Thanks, Blondie, but I’m pretty sure they were probably some penniless trash traders or drunkards that dropped me off at the orphanage and never looked back. I’m much better off not ever knowing them.” His tone had the same flippancy as always, but Rapunzel noticed a hesitancy in his voice.

It was the same hesitance she had when she tried to convince herself Mother Gothel had loved her. A pleasant lie that she repeated to herself again and again until she believed it was true. The alternative would have been too painful. Rapunzel wondered how many times Eugene had told himself he was better off not knowing his parents. She wondered how many times he _still_ told that to himself.

“Well, whatever happened with your parents, you’re certainly loved now.” She punctuated her reassurance with yet another kiss, and this time she kissed him even longer than the one he’d given her. Emboldened, Rapunzel began to push Eugene down onto the loveseat, not letting her lips leave his. She was only just climbing on top of her boyfriend when Pascal made a very obvious croak to remind them of his presence. Rapunzel reluctantly let her boyfriend’s lips free from hers with a soft giggle.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Pascal!” she said through the giggling. She returned to a proper sitting position on the loveseat, but this time with her legs curled beneath her. “Just got a little swept up in the moment.” She smiled at Pascal but noticed that Pascal was not smiling back. No, that’s not right, he smiled back at her, but when his sights were locked on a very frustrated Eugene.

Looking at Eugene made Rapunzel burst out laughing. The man’s whole demeanor was as though he had been caught by a threatening older sibling, but in this case that ‘older sibling’ was a six-inch chameleon! He crossed his arms and sat up properly on the loveseat, planting his feet solidly on the ground in a wide stance.

“Thanks, buddy. And here I thought you were on my side.” Pascal responded by sticking his tongue out at Eugene, which was a very long tongue indeed. This threw Rapunzel into an even bigger fit of laughter.

Rapunzel slowly came down from her giggle-fit only to find Eugene no longer sitting next to her. He was leaning against the railing next to Pascal and looking over the city. It seemed the two were cordial with each other again. She plodded over on her bare feet and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I once said to the Stabbington Brothers that I could get used to this view.” He gave a happy sigh. “And, like most things I've said to them, it was a total lie. I don’t think I'll ever get used to this view." Eugene didn't move from his spot, but he did settle back into Rapunzel's arms.

"I'm at least never going to forget it." He said as he extended an arm to Pascal. He cheerfully climbed into Eugene's shoulder and gave a squeak of agreement. The three looked out into the lights of the city.

"You'll have plenty of chances to look at it," Rapunzel reassured him. "The view isn't going anywhere."

This caused Eugene to slowly turn around on Rapunzel's arms. He brought his arms to hold her by the waist.

"The view’s not going anywhere, sure, but we are. As soon as we get the caravan set up, we're going… somewhere. Following these rocks. We won't be back here to see this view for a while, if we come back at all." Rapunzel could see the concern in his eyes before he pulled her into a tight hug. She felt Pascal cross over onto her head.

"Don't be so worried, of course we're going to come back," Rapunzel said with decreasing confidence. The possibility of this being a one-way trip hadn't occurred to her until now.

Eugene loosened his grip on Rapunzel, and she leaned back to look up at him again. "Blondie, I almost lost you last night. Varian's giant gorilla robot could have ground you into paste, and we had no idea what was going to happen when you grabbed those Black Rocks. It could have been the end of you."

Rapunzel rarely saw Eugene looking this worried; even at the worst of times he always tried to put on a confident face. Like during the blizzard. She only saw him this concerned when they were alone. Or just the two of them and Pascal, but Rapunzel suspected Eugene didn't count him.

"It's just, when I say I want to spend the rest of our lives together, I was thinking that was gonna be a nice, long while. But here we are jumping into danger feet first, and you don't even wear shoes." Rapunzel wondered, not for the first time, if Eugene's witticisms were a coping mechanism for stress.

"I'm not saying we should call this journey off, but maybe we should wait a bit longer, prepare a bigger party than just us and Cassandra. You're my world, Sunshine, and even the thought of losing you scares me." He rested a hand on her cheek before holding her close to him again.

For a moment Rapunzel let her head rest against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and considering his words. He was right: the excitement and adventure shouldn't outweigh the potential dangers.

"Eugene," she finally said, "I'm scared too." She pulled away from his embrace but held onto his hand, leading him back inside from the balcony.

"But I've spent my entire life scared. Scared of ruffians with sharp teeth, scared of poison ivy, scared of quicksand, scared of the _plague_. But being scared isn't going to keep me locked up in a tower anymore." In the warner confines of her room, Rapunzel could see Eugene still wasn't convinced.

"I'd still feel better if we brought some guardsmen with us, maybe a few more carriages." A smile came to Rapunzel's face as she closed the balcony doors. Not too long-ago Eugene did everything he could to stay _away_ from guards and now he was trying to see how many he could include in his life. He must really be worried for their safety.

"How about this," she conceded, crossing back around her boyfriend to her corner of art. "We can bring Lance along, so it'll be the five of us. Flynn Rider and Lance Strongbow should be more than enough to protect us." She put Pascal onto the table. The chameleon stood in his hind legs and waved his arms in front of himself like a boxer. “And Pascal, too, of course.”

"How about we bring the Pub Thugs with us, then? Even just one of them would be a huge difference." Eugene was milling about Rapunzel's art station and waved a brush as he made his offer.

"Then we can bring ‘just one’ of the Pub Thugs with us." She took the brush from his hand and waved it back at him. She felt it was a fair counteroffer.

Eugene stroked his goatee in consideration before saying "I can live with that. But I get to pick who."

"That's settled then," Rapunzel said happily. Eugene held out his hand to shake on the deal and Pascal jumped up to high five it. Pascal was developing a liking for high fives recently.

Rapunzel began organizing art supplies, trying to decide which to set aside to be packed, but also stalling for a little time. She was struggling with what she wanted to say next, and finally worked up the courage.

"You know, Eugene. I've been thinking about it for a while now and if you wanted to _ask_ me to spend the _rest of our lives_ together again…" she adopted a sing-song lilt to her voice to mask her nervousness and turned away from him.

The room was silent. Rapunzel held her breath. She didn’t dare turn around until he said… something. Anything. It was only seconds, but to Rapunzel it felt like hours. Her mind raced, trying to figure out if she had made a mistake.

“Rapunzel,” Eugene finally said. She spun on her heel so fast her thick, braided hair swung enough to reach the front of her body before it settled behind her again. She expected him to be on one knee. She thought this would be it.

Instead he was leaning against a table he had personally covered in pots of paint and brushes so long ago, a soft smile on his face. “I love you. And I know you love me. I don’t _need_ to ask you to spend the rest of our lives together.” He pushed off the table and closed the distance between them, resting his hands on her waist.

This wasn’t going how she thought it would. “This… question means a lot to me, too, ya’know. I want to ask it when it’s the right time. That’s why I asked you during your coronation last time; I figured it would make a great start to our new life.” He leaned down and kissed her lovingly on the forehead. “But right now? Just before we’re going off to who knows where? This isn’t the right time. I don’t want to ask just because we’re scared.”

The corner of Eugene’s lips curled into a wry smile. “Besides, Sunshine. You made me promise to wait until you were ready before I ask you again, and I know how important promises are to you. I’m going to keep that promise and,” he moved one hand to hold her tenderly by the chin, “right now, I don’t think you’re ready.”

Only now did Rapunzel exhale the breath she didn’t realize she was still holding. It turned into a huge sigh of relief that he hadn’t… asked. Her only exposure to the idea had come from her storybooks where it was the ‘happily ever after’ at the end, and maybe she was starting to want that to come sooner rather than later. She rose onto her toes and gave him a light kiss on the lips. “Thank you, Eugene.”

She let Eugene wander back to her assortment of art scattered about and crossed her arms. She hadn’t realized how tense he had been until he watched his back walking away. Rapunzel tilted her head and smiled lovingly at her boyfriend. Turning down the invitation to ask that all important question must have been hard on him, too.

But he was right, of course. The aftermath of a life-threatening event and the fear of what was to come was not the right time to have that question asked. She wasn’t ready yet and her heart swelled with the knowledge that he understood her motivations just now better than she did; probably because he was resisting those same motivations himself. He may have been a rogue, a thief, and a joker but he respected her enough to wait until she was ready.

Ironically that respect made her feel all the closer to being ready.

"Say, uh, is this us in that balloon thing?” Eugene called from the other side of the room, leaning over to look at an easel. His voice had the urgency that said, ‘let's change the topic’ and she agreed with his awkward efforts to move past the ‘him asking her’ subject.

Pascal scampered over to where Eugene was inspecting the painting and Rapunzel trailed behind her little friend. The chameleon hopped onto the easel and sat in front of the image of himself, taking up the same pose as he had when the painting had been made. Slowly he changed his colors to melt into… himself.

“I don’t think imitating yourself is the best hiding spot, Pascal.” Rapunzel teased, looping an arm around Eugene’s waist. He reciprocated around her shoulder.

“Oh, no, no, no, Blondie!” Eugene interjected with an over exaggerated ‘wise’ voice. “It’s the perfect spot to hide, no one expects you to be yourself when you’re on the run. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve passed myself off as my own wanted poster.” The ex-thief turned his face slightly and made his eyes slightly glassy and unfocused like how he was drawn in the posters.

“Really? Cause that face of yours looks nothing like your wanted posters,” Rapunzel reached up to push his perfectly symmetrical nose upwards and slightly askew. “There we go,” she giggled as he swatted her hands away.

“Hey, hey, alright, alright! Ugh, you’re lucky I haven’t started my nightly pore cleansing treatment yet, or I’d be really upset at you.” He flared his nostrils once or twice, bringing his hands to the sides of his nose and patting it like she could have caused actual damage.

Meanwhile Rapunzel picked up a half-finished painting of the city landscape that was leaning against the easel’s leg. “That’s strange, someone replaced the painting I was working on with this one from a few months ago.” She was about to switch the two paintings back, but Eugene held out a hand to stop her.

“Hold on, sweetheart, you’re gonna knock the frog off the canvas.” He pointed at the suddenly moving image of Pascal that developed a smug look on his face. The two had been right: Rapunzel had completely forgotten he was there.

“Come back here, you.” Rapunzel giggled at the sneaky lizard, extending a hand for him to climb on. “This doesn’t count,” she told him wagging her finger back and forth at him. As far as Rapunzel was concerned, she still held the lead in their games of Hide and Seek. Pascal just crossed his arms at her and raised an eyebrow, something Rapunzel had grown accustomed to him doing despite chameleons not having eyebrows to raise.

“Ya’know, it’s a real shame we couldn’t go up on that balloon again.” Eugene was cupping his right elbow in his left hand and gesturing with his right hand like an art critic in a museum. Admittedly Rapunzel had never met a real art critic before, so she wasn’t sure if they actually did that. The fake The Giovani that tried to burgle the castle last year probably didn’t count.

“I would have loved to go up in the balloon again, just like this,” Eugene continued. “You, me, and Cassandra flying out over the kingdom like we did before, only without that dumb asymmetrical-faced jerk with us.” Eugene leaned in on the painting and Rapunzel felt some joy: it was always nice when her boyfriend really appreciated her art.

“Your painting really _gets_ how that balloon was the perfect combination of thrilling and romantic. The way you and Cass were framed by the moonlight that night, with the wind in your hair and how happy you two looked? I mean, it made my heart skip a beat. I couldn’t believe just how _beautiful_ the two of you were.” There was something in what Eugene had just said that drew Rapunzel’s attention, but before she could pinpoint what it was, his next critique distracted her.

“This bit here with Pascal and the vase seems a little weird, though.” Eugene went to poke the spot where Pascal had been but stopped his finger before getting too close to the painting. She smiled at how silly he looked checking Rapunzel’s shoulder to confirm where Pascal was. But Rapunzel’s smile disappeared when she realized Pascal was not, in fact, on her shoulder anymore.

Pascal leapt up from the easel and climbed up Eugene’s arm when he glanced at her, using his poking finger as a springboard. His squeak and look of triumph said it all. “OK, we can count this one as your win,” Rapunzel conceded. When had he snuck over there? She and Eugene had both been looking directly at the canvas!

“Get over there, frog,” Eugene scolded Pascal, shuffling over to Rapunzel so their shoulders touched. Pascal easily strolled from one shoulder to the other, all the while radiating Hide and Seek triumph.

“Say, you think we can use this thing to follow the Black Rocks?” Eugene’s attention had returned to the painting, walking around the easel now to look directly at Rapunzel from behind it. “We still got the one the not-so-good-looking guy had, right? It would be so much safer than going by caravan. We wouldn’t need to bring so many people, _and_ it’ll be so much easier to see where the rocks are leading us from above!”

Rapunzel tilted her head and bit her lip. “Well… you’re not wrong. It would be easier and faster.” Eugene’s eye lit up with excitement at having had a clever idea. “But!” She quickly said, putting a stop to Eugene’s excitement. “We chopped it up pretty badly when we rescued Herz der Sonne’s journal and we have no idea how to get it working again.”

“Oh, c’mon!” Eugene said. “Someone’s got to know how to fix it. Throw some patches on the thing, stick another basket under it, and we're good to go, right?”

“It’s more complicated than that, Eugene.” Rapunzel picked the canvas off the easel and replaced it with the work she hadn’t finished, walking back to the line of completed works and placing it back where it belonged. “No one can figure out how to get the flame mechanism to work. Something about a special sort of fuel and needing a few parts. _Someone_ broke it when they were trying to pilot it back to the ground.” Rapunzel turned back to her boyfriend with an accusatory look. Teasingly accusatory, but still accusatory.

“Oh. Right. No idea who could have done that,” Eugene mumbled in the nonchalant way people do when they are, in fact, very chalant.

Eugene leaned on the easel and made the face he makes when he’s come up with a new scheme. “Say, you think Varian might be able to put it back together? The kid made a bunch of killer robots, I think he can fix a box.”

Rapunzel’s mood immediately soured.

Varian, who less than forty-eight hours ago had tried to kill the people who meant the most to her. Varian, whose father was trapped in amber because of something to do with the Black Rocks. Varian, whom she said she would help but never did.

The first time she had ever, ever broken a promise.

“I… I don’t think Varian will want to help us with anything right now.” Rapunzel looked at the floor and ran her right hand up and down her left arm in nervousness. In regret.

“No, nooo.” Eugene crossed the distance between them with long, awkward strides and his voice was suddenly apologetic and soothing. “No, sweetheart, here, look at me.” Rapunzel let a curled finger tender lift her chin again. “You did nothing wrong. Ya’hear me? The kid made his choice, and we responded the only way we could. You can’t let yourself feel guilty for that.”

“But I promised him. I should have gone back to him after the storm, done something to help him.” Rapunzel felt Pascal place a tiny green hand on her cheek for comfort.

Eugene took Rapunzel into his arms and rubbed her back. There was always something comforting about how he held her like this. It felt safe. It felt _right_.

“When, Rapunzel? While _another_ witch tried to kidnap you and use you to release some evil, magic goat-man? Or when you had to plan a whole shindig for some pompous dignitary for important political reasons? Do you think you could have helped the kid all hyped up on magic mood potion?” Eugene’s hand on her back helped comfort her. He was right: she was in no condition to offer help to Varian after the storm, and from there it had spiraled until her birthday.

Or was that just an excuse for her own negligence?

“Besides, Blondie,” Eugene stroked her cheek and made a reassuring smirk, “Your dad can handle him, now. This has become insurrection stuff, and that’s his responsibility.” Rapunzel was about to respond but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

It was a knock that Rapunzel recognized, and it was more of a courtesy knock than anything; the knocker had Rapunzel’s full permission to come and go as she pleased. “Hey, Raps, there’s some stuff we really need to talk ab--” Cassandra’s voice cut off when she saw the couple. “Oh. I can come back,” she said hurriedly. Unusually for this time of night, she was wearing her casual clothes rather than her castle uniform.

Rapunzel pushed herself back from Eugene's surprisingly tense arms. “No, it’s okay, Cass. I’m alright. I was just upset about what happened the other night.” Rapunzel brought her sad eyes up to her best friend just in time to see her eyes snap to Eugene in panic. Rapunzel furrowed her brow and looked over her shoulder in confusion at her boyfriend. His expression didn’t seem any different.

“She’s upset about what happened _with Varian_.” Eugene’s words were deliberate, and Rapunzel’s confusion softened. She still felt a little embarrassed at how often he had to ‘translate’ what she meant for people. She was working on it, but even this long since she’d left The Tower, she still had her socially awkward moments.

“Oh,” Cassandra said with relief washing over her face.

“Is something going on between you two?” Rapunzel asked. The two tensed up again. She shook her head, pointed at the two of them, and put on her most authoritative tone. “If you guys are fighting again, I don’t want to hear it. Whatever it is, you’re apologizing to each other right now.”

The two of them visibly relaxed and Rapunzel smiled with pride that her ‘Royal Voice’ worked. Maybe she’d make a good Queen yet! She crossed her arms to watch her two friends make up.

Eugene walked over to Cassandra, rubbing the back of his head. “Um, Cassandra,” Rapunzel noticed he pronounced her name correctly, “I’m sorry about what I said. You did great out there and I never should have doubted you.”

Cassandra’s eyes widened and then darted around the room, stopping to look at Rapunzel. Was she blushing? She turned her attention back to Eugene. “No, it’s… Look, I'm the one who should be sorry, Eugene. I didn’t get it at the time, but I overreacted. I… I got swept up in the mood and thought you wanted something else.” Her eyebrows raised suddenly. “Thinking! _Thinking_ something else.” Cassandra was wringing her hands nervously. “I really _didn’t_ have my head on straight.”

“Yeah, no, uh,” Eugene stammered a bit. “It’s just hard, ya’know? Seeing someone you really care about jumping into danger?” Rapunzel noted that’s what he had just been telling her.

Surprisingly, Cassandra looked like she was actually comforted by Eugene’s words. She was looking at Eugene with the same affectionate eyes Rapunzel thought Cassandra saved only for her. “Thanks, Eugene. For caring about me. It… it really means a lot.”

From her angle Rapunzel couldn’t actually see Eugene’s face, but his voice told her he was smiling, too. “Of course, Cass, I’ll always care for you.”

Rapunzel clenched both hands into happy little fists and practically bounced on her toes. “It’s happening!” she whispered softly to Pascal on her shoulder. Trying to will the two closest people in her life into hugging by sheer force of want, she settled for the friendly chuckle they gave each other instead.

There was a brief, increasingly awkward pause between the two and Rapunzel was about to say something when Eugene spoke up. “Hey, that’ll teach me to underestimate you, huh? I mean, right up until you had the brilliant idea to tackle a _giant robot_ and Varian grabbed you out of the air like a ragdoll.” Eugene gave Cassandra a playful punch on the shoulder.

Rather than get angry like Rapunzel expected, Cassandra’s eyes narrowed but her smile didn’t go away. “Yeah? Well fat load of help you were when it happened. What was it, too weak to fight a child, tiger? Or were you too scared?”

“Excuse me! I was just using your stupidity as a distraction to rescue ‘The Princess’, thank you very much,” Eugene retorted with mock resentment, bringing an exaggerated hand to his chest.

“Hah! Really, now? And then she’s the one who ended up rescuing us, so _you’re_ back to having been completely useless.” Cassandra punched Eugene in the shoulder and for a moment Rapunzel thought they were going to fight again, but it seems this was what Cassandra’s version of a ‘playful punch’ looked like.

Her Lady-in-Waiting brushed past Eugene with a wry smirk, holding her hands palm up at her shoulders and shaking her head. Behind her Eugene watched Cassandra go past with a friendly smile until she could no longer see him. Then his smile fell, his hand came up to the shoulder she had ‘playfully’ punched, and with an over animated expression silently mouthed the word ‘ow!’ to Rapunzel.

The princess giggled at their interaction, taking both of Cassandra’s hands into hers when she was within reach. “Well look at you two finally getting along!” Sure, they were still throwing insults at each other, but they didn’t seem _mad_ with each other.

“Yeah, well. Maybe he’s not so much of a lazy freeloader after all.” Cassandra said, turning to Eugene with a smirk who promptly pulled his hand away from his shoulder.

“I’ll leave you ladies to have one of your ‘talks’ then.” Eugene smiled warmly at Rapunzel _and_ Cassandra. “I’m going to try and find some ice,” he said, walking backwards towards the door and bringing his hand back up to his shoulder.

“Wimp,” Cassandra said, but with a _giggle_. An honest to goodness giggle! They really _were_ getting along!

Eugene held the door open with one hand and leaned against the door jamb. “I heard that!” He said and the two women laughed at his playfully indignant tone.

Before ducking out the door, though, Eugene smiled warmly at Rapunzel. “You know, Sunshine, I promised I’d wait to ask you ‘the question’, and promises are important to you, but I’m pretty well known for breaking promises. I might just get impatient.” Eugene gave her a wink and an expression that wasn’t _quite_ the quality of _The Smoulder_ ™, but still made Rapunzel blush profusely. Cassandra tilted her head in confusion at Rapunzel as the door quietly closed behind Eugene.

“What was that about?” She asked, her lips pursed, and brow furrowed.

“Oh, never mind that.” Rapunzel still held both of Cassandra’s hands in her own and used them to pull her best friend to sit on her bed.

Pascal, her other best friend, crawled off Rapunzel when they sat on the bed. He skittered up the wall to his branch and yawned. It was getting cold and late, and the lizard deserved to go to sleep. With a little wave, which Rapunzel returned with a smile and a nod, Pascal used the pulley to raise himself into the rafters.

After the pair watched a chameleon operate a simple machine that he had no right to know how to use, Cassandra tried to take her hands back. Rapunzel held on tight, though.

It felt too long since Rapunzel had really gotten the chance to be with Cassandra. Sure, her Lady-in-Waiting duties had been covered by Friedborg while Cassandra recuperated after the battle, and even though it had only been a day Rapunzel still really missed her best friend. It had been a very busy and stressful day.

Rapunzel loosened her grip when Cassandra gave a warm smile and seemed to resign herself to having her hands held.

“We haven’t really had the chance to talk since the battle, huh, Raps? I just… I mean, I know I don’t really need to check up on you. Obviously, you’re doing fine. _You’re_ the one who saved all of _us._ But it just felt weird not talking to you for a day, especially after everything that happened.” Cassandra sighed and visibly relaxed. It was like she was a balloon filled with tension and she finally got to let it loose. “I can’t help but worry about you.”

Rapunzel’s face joined Cassandra’s in its affection smile, only with added excitement. “I worry about you, too, Cass! I was _so_ worried about you! I thought your dad was going to lead the assault, so when I saw that it was you at the front of it all, I was so scared. Don’t get me wrong, I know you can more than handle yourself, but all those automatons… they were so… intimidating!” Despite the claims of fear and worry, Rapunzel’s affectionate smile didn’t fade. This was the over excited celebration of her friend conquering a thrilling trial and Rapunzel couldn’t help but be impressed!

“Yeah, there was a last-minute change of plans there.” Rapunzel was almost bouncing on the bed, waving Cassandra’s arms in excitement and Cassandra noticeably blushed. If her excitement was causing Cassandra to blush, Rapunzel didn’t care; she couldn’t contain how proud she was of her friend! “My dad was too injured to fight, and I guess the next best thing was me.” Cassandra tried to turn away to hide her embarrassment, but Rapunzel could still see humble pride on Cassandra’s face.

“Still, you were so brave.” Rapunzel continued to bob their hands up and down as she spoke. She recognized she was acting like a giddy teenager, but for at least another year she _was_ a teenager. She felt like she was owed dalliances in immaturity every now and again.

Plus, the way Cassandra and Eugene were now getting along had greatly improved her mood since her worries about Varian. Eugene was right: he and his grievances were political problems now and best handled by her father.

“It wasn’t hard to be brave when you were in danger,” Cassandra said. Rapunzel finally let go of their hands, but only because Cassandra went in for a hug.

“Someone’s feeling huggy today,” Rapunzel laughed, squeezing her best friend tight.

“Eh, what can I say? You’ve been rubbing off on me.” Cassandra pulled back from the hug and rested her hands-on Rapunzel’s shoulders, a position that reminded Rapunzel of a confusing morning not so long ago.

“Cass, about the time you were brushing my hair--” Rapunzel tried to broach the subject but cut herself off when Cassandra vigorously shook her head.

“I’m not here to talk about that.” The firmness with which Cassandra said it threw off Rapunzel’s thought process and she just sat there with her mouth open, no more sentences on the subject forming in her mind.

“Raps, the thing I wanted to talk about was what you did out there.” While still friendly, Cassandra’s voice was becoming serious again.

“When you touched the Black Rocks and what happened with them, it was reckless, and you had no idea what touching them would do. They could have grown wildly again, or even exploded! You could have gotten everyone really hurt.” Cassandra’s tone didn’t convey anger but worry and concern instead. And it was definitely a voice of concern when she added “you could have gotten _yourself_ really hurt.”

“No, I _did_ know what was going to happen!” Rapunzel actually felt glad at the opportunity to share the strange experience with her friend. “It was so _weird_ , Cass. It was like the Black rocks were trying to _talk_ to me. They didn’t want to hurt me. I think they wanted to _help_ me!” Rapunzel had no real way to explain the _feeling_ she was getting from the rocks, how her instincts about them had changed.

“My hair was moving on its own again, like when I had those nightmares, except this time it was in a good way.” Rapunzel coiled the thick braid into her lap, stroking it with her hands, as Cassandra removed hers from Rapunzel’s shoulders.

“Besides, if we want to talk reckless, the way you leapt at Varian was pretty reckless yourself.” Rapunzel tilted her head and looked up at Cassandra from lidded eyes, twisting her body from side to side mischievously. “Maybe Eugene was right when he said it was a stupid idea.”

Cassandra’s brow furrowed in anger, but the corner of her lips tilted up in a grin. “Excuse me, I believe the exact thing he said was that it was a _brilliant_ idea, thank you very much.” Cassandra punched Rapunzel in the shoulder in the playful way Rapunzel had seen her give Eugene just moments before. Even though Rapunzel felt the sheer force behind the punch, she didn’t find it painful in the slightest. Maybe Eugene was probably playing it up in that ‘drama queen’ way of his. Or maybe he really was a wimp. Either way the two girls laughed together over their friendly ribbing of each other.

When their laughter calmed down Cassandra continued. “I couldn’t help it. When I saw Varian come bursting out of his lab like that, I just moved on instinct. I think I was hoping that if I could draw his attention, he’d focus on me and not the others. A lot of good that did.” Cassandra added snidely with a shrug and a shake of her head.

Rapunzel could only nod in agreement; Varian had grabbed her mother shortly after catching Cassandra. “It was a good effort, though. And you had no idea he would go after my mom next.”

Rapunzel’s best friend took her closer hand and gave it a warm squeeze. “Yeah, well, seeing your mom in danger might have been the push you needed. The plan was to rescue the Queen, after all. Maybe seeing her in danger is what triggered the connection between your hair and the Rocks. It felt a lot better having the Rock’s destruction on _our_ side for once!” 

Cassandra released Rapunzel’s hand and rose from the bed to stand with her hands on her hips and a comforting smile on her face. It was the posture of a triumphant warrior; a posture Cassandra had most certainly earned.

“I… I don't think that was it,” Rapunzel said, returning to the subject of the rocks. “I mean, I think you’re right about my connection to the Rocks and I think I finally ‘get’ them, now. I was talking to my dad after the battle and I don’t think the Black Rocks were ever trying to… to hurt us.” She scrunched her face and pursed her lips; it was hard to find the right words to describe what she meant.

“It’s always been when I was in danger that the Rocks came for me, _spoke_ to me. Whenever they showed up in my nightmares it was like they were warning me. They’ve been trying to reach me all this time. _That’s_ the reason they were spreading through Corona and trying to reach the castle.” Rapunzel stood from her bed and crossed her arms across her chest, holding her elbows in her hands. She was still struggling to articulate what she meant as she made her way to the window closest to her bed to look out into the night.

“I think they were never coming for the _castle_ , Cass, I think they were always coming for _me_.” Rapunzel turned to Cassandra who now had a confused expression on her face.

“Oh, great. So, the Black Rocks weren’t trying to destroy the kingdom, they were only trying to destroy you.” Cassandra joined Rapunzel at the window, taking a seat on the window bench, crossing her legs, and leaning back onto her hands. Rapunzel could feel the sarcasm ooze of Cassandra’s words.

“No, I think they were just trying to _find_ me! You saw what happened after the battle, how they destroyed the wall and all sort of… lay down. Now that they’ve found me, I think they’re trying to lead me somewhere.” Now it was Cassandra’s face that was scrunched in contemplation.

“Huh. So that’s the real reason we’re loading a caravan? It’s not just because the King finally feels you can handle yourself enough for an excursion away from Corona?” Cassandra bit her lip and twisted her body to look out the window like she could see the Black Rocks through the darkness. 

When Cassandra turned back to look at Rapunzel her face was one of determination. “Alright, Raps, I’m in.”

“But… you were already supposed to be coming with us.” Rapunzel tilted her; Cassandra couldn’t have forgotten that in the day since it was decided, could she?

“Well duh, I knew that. But now that I’ve got the whole picture, I want you to know that I’ll be with you all the way, no matter where we end up.” Cassandra stood and threw her arm around Rapunzel’s shoulders, pulling her close to look out the window together.

Rapunzel laughed as she snaked her arm around Cassandra’s waist. While Cassandra was hardly a ‘peppy’ person, her enthusiasm for adventure was one of her most endearing traits to Rapunzel. She rested her head against Cassandra’s shoulder. “It could be anywhere, you know.”

“Then our next stop will be anywhere.” Cassandra rested her head on Rapunzel’s.

The two looked out over the dim lights of the city, each one slowly blinking out as people turned in for the night. Cassandra’s hand brushed up and down Rapunzel’s arm in a way she liked. There was always something comforting about the way she held her like this. It felt safe. It felt _right_.

“Cass,” Rapunzel said after a while. “It wasn’t seeing my mom in danger that was the push I needed the other night.”

The words hung in the air between the two.

Rapunzel swallowed nothing and tried again. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but that morning, when you were brushing my hair? I told you. If you were ever in any real danger, I would end up doing something truly horrible.”

Still, the words hung in the air between the two.

Finally, Cassandra spoke up. “I’m touched, Raps.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “But the Queen is… she’s far more important to the kingdom. She’s your family.” In Cassandra’s voice Rapunzel could barely make out a quiver of… hesitation? Uncertainty? _Sadness_?

Rapunzel pulled her head away from Cassandra’s shoulder and looked up at her. Cassandra didn’t turn her head to look back, instead her gaze was firmly locked ahead and out the window.

“Cass… you’re far more important to _me_. _You’re_ my family.” It was true; for some reason there was something about Cassandra’s presence that Rapunzel recognized, something she had felt all her life. It really felt like Cassandra was family.

And yet, ‘family’ still was too weak of a description for what Rapunzel felt for Cassandra. Why was thinking about this so hard? Of course, she hated thinking about it, but she had an active enough imagination that she should be able to at least _conceive_ the notion of a life without Cassandra. But she couldn’t.

Maybe she could have conceived something if she had the time, but Rapunzel was anxious over how Cassandra was going to respond. _If_ she was going to respond.

It was only seconds, but to Rapunzel it felt like hours. Her mind raced, trying to figure out if she had made a mistake. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Cassandra turned her head to Rapunzel. The corners of her almond shaped eyes tilted downward and if Rapunzel didn’t know any better, she’d say they were beginning to water.

The Princess looked up at the Lady-in-Waiting and the Lady-in-Waiting looked down at the Princess. The Lady-in-Waiting closed her eyes and the Princess did too. Softly, gently, Rapunzel felt Cassandra’s forehead rest upon hers. No more words needed to be said.

Eventually the two would part. They would hold back tears and compose themselves, returning to their roles as Princess and Lady-in-Waiting. The night was growing late and there was much preparation to be made for what was likely to be a months-long journey ahead. The caravan needed to be prepared, clothes needed to be packed, and provisions needed to be arranged. Their adventure would be dangerous, and in all likelihood, they would not come back the same people as they were when they left.

But for now, for this one, long instant, the Princess and the Lady-in-Waiting simply stood, heads resting together, and held each other close.

Lovingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About 3 weeks later we have the conclusion of the first season. And of course, this scene was the longest one I've written. It does make me consider whether to use any two parters anymore, as the times I've done it were one scene split into two because of length. Maybe Season 2 will only be 14 chapters. Who knows.
> 
> I tried to wrap up a lot of the running plot threads I had throughout my season, so this one had less overt references to the series itself. Instead I reference previous chapters, echoing thoughts and feelings and descriptions that hopefully created a greater sense of continuity and emotional build up. So if you've not, now is a good time to reread the whole season and see if the threads really connected.
> 
> Or maybe they didn't. Maybe it was there but it didn't resonate with you. Maybe there were inconsistencies that I didn't notice or intend and you would like to point it out to me. I encourage this. I want to hear what you critically thought of my work. I love these characters and their relationship, how they so overtly love and care about each other equally. This has been a months long passion project, and I want to make the next season even better.
> 
> So please, let me know what you thought. Share it with your friends in the Tangled fandom and let me know what _they_ thought. Heck, share it with people outside of the fandom and maybe it'll suck them in!
> 
> But most of all, more than any of that, I want to thank you all for reading. Sure, I'm writing these stories for myself, but being able to _share_ my passion with others? And for them to appreciate it enjoy it _with_ me?
> 
> Thank you.


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